THE  AUTHOR 


MORE  CHAPTERS  OF 
OPERA 

BEING 

HISTORICAL    AND    CRITICAL    OBSERVATIONS 

AND  RECORDS  CONCERNING  THE  LYRIC 

DRAMA   IN   NEW   YORK    FROM 

1908   TO    1918 


BY 

HENRY    EDWARD    KREHBIEL 

MUSICAL  EDITOR   OF    "THE   NEW   YORK   TRIBUNE  "  J    AUTHOR  OF   "HOW  TO  LISTEN  TO 

MUSIC,"    "  STUDIES  IN    THE    WAGNER1AN    DRAMA,"    "  MUSIC  AND   MANNERS 

IN    THE  CLASSICAL   PERIOD,"    "THE  PIANOFORTE  AND   ITS  MUSIC,'"' 

"  A   BOOK  OF  OPERAS,"    "AFRO-AMERICAN     FOLKSONGS," 

ETC  ,  AND   "  CHAPTERS  OF  OPERA,"  TO  WHICH 

THIS   VOLUME   IS   A  SEQUEL 


WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  TABLES  OF  PERFORMANCES 
WITHIN  THE  PERIOD  DESCRIBED 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY 
1919 


COPYRIGHT,  IQIQ 

BY 
HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


tCbr  (Duinn  &  JBotun    Companp 

BOOK      MANUFACTURERS 
NAHWAV  NEW     JERSEY 


To 

WILLIAM  J.  HENDERSON,  ESQ. 

The  Author  s  Colleague  and  Friend 

for  a  generation 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTORY  OBSERVATIONS 

PAGE 

Why  This  Book  Was  Written— Effect  of  the  World  War 
upon  Operatic  Conditions — A  New  Era  Predicted — Ten 
Years  of  Unparalleled  Activity — The  Incidents  Mar- 
shaled— A  Frivolous  Attitude  of  the  Newspapers  Ar- 
raigned— New  York  Today  and  London  Two  Centuries 
Ago — The  Cult  of  the  Prima  Donna — Criticism  De- 
fended— A  Critic's  Duty  to  Art,  His  Conscience,  and 
His  Time — Permanency  in  Artistic  Principles 

CHAPTER  II 

OPERATIC  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  BEGINNING 
OF  THE  DECADE 

State  of  Affairs  at  the  Close  of  the  Season  1907-08 — Re- 
view of  the  Preceding  Period — Ideals  Left  by  Maurice 
Grau — The  Succession  of  Mr.  Conried  in  the  Manage- 
ment of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House — His  Promises 
and  Failures — His  Retirement — Engagement  of  Mr. 
Gatti-Casazza  and  Mr.  Dippel — Dreams  of  World  Do- 
minion— Death  of  Heinrich  Conried — His  Career — Mr. 
Gatti's  Unfortunate  Introduction — Wagner's  Dramas 
in  Italy — Mr.  Gatti's  Early  Life — Controversy  Between 
the  Managers — Singers  Intercede  for  Mr.  Dippel — He 
Is  Routed — The  New  Theater  Built  and  Dedicated — A 
Beautiful  Ideal — A  List  of  the  Founders  ....  13 

CHAPTER  III 

THE  FIRST  SEASON  OF  THE  DUAL 
ADMINISTRATION 

The  Season  1908-09 — Emmy  Destinn — A  Patriotic  Prima 
Donna — Changes  Presaged  by  the  War — Signer  Tos- 
canini ;  His  Qualities  and  Triumphs — Reflections  on  the 
Season — D'Albert's  "  Tiefland  " — Inter-racialism  Ram- 
pant— An  American  School  of  Composition — Bohe- 
mians Object  to  the  Austrian  National  Hymn — "  Le 
Villi,"  Puccini's  First  Opera — Five  Generations  of  Puc- 
cinis — Catalani's  "  La  Wally  " — The  Musical  Revolution 


xii  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  IX 

A  VISIT  FROM  THE  CHICAGO-PHILADELPHIA 
COMPANY 

PAGE 

Influences  of  Hammerstein  at  the  Metropolitan — The  Decay 
of  French  Opera — Hammerstein's  Chicago  Scheme — 
Philadelphia  Brings  Novelties  to  New  York — "  Na- 
toma " — Some  of  Its  Predecessors — A  Century  of 
American  Opera — The  Librettist's  Poetry — "  II  Segreto 
di  Susanna  " — A  German  Opera  Sung  in  Italian — "  Quo 
Vadis  ?  " — Nero  the  Singer  in  Opera  and  History — 
Story  of  the  Opera,  and  Comments 224 


CHAPTER  X 

NOVELTIES  OF  A  SEASON  AND  A 
PRIZE  OPERA 

The  Interesting  Features  of  1911-12 — Some  Excellent  Ad- 
ditions to  the  Metropolitan  Forces — Thuille's  "  Lobe- 
tanz  " — Characteristics  of  Matinee  Audiences — Use  of 
Wagnerian  Materials — Thuille  and  His  Music — Out-of- 
doors  Operatic  Festivals — Wolf-Ferrari's  "  Le  Donne 
Curiose  " — A  Visit  from  the  Composer — Divided  Al- 
legiances, Racially  and  Musically — "  I  Giojelli  della 
Madonna " — Visit  from  the  Philadelphia  Company — 
Massenet's  "  Cendrillon  " — Cinderella  as  an  Operatic 
Heroine — Blech's  "  Versiegelt " — A  Diverting  Comedy 
with  Brass  Ornaments — Production  of  the  Prize  Opera 
"  Mona " — Want  of  Operatic  Suitability  in  a  Strong 
and  Beautiful  Dramatic  Poem — The  Province  of  Music 
in  a  Drama — Obstacles  Placed  by  the  Poet  to  Sym- 
pathy for  His  Heroine — Professor  Parker's  Music — 
Earlier  Achievements  of  the  Composer — Characteriza- 
tion by  Means  of  Tonality — Themes  as  Musical  Sym- 
bols— Monteverde's  "  Orfeo  " 242 


CHAPTER  XI 

AN  INCREASE  IN  TICKET  PRICES  AND  A 
SCANDAL 

The  Cost  of  Seats  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  Ad- 
vanced— Reason  Given  in  Explanation — Speculation  in 
Theater  Tickets  in  New  York — Relation  Between  Man- 
agers and  Speculators — Attitude  of  the  Metropolitan 
Management — Agents  Hypothecate  Tickets  Belonging 
to  Subscribers — Criminal  Proceedings  Against  an 


CONTENTS  xiii 


Agent — Why  They  Were  Not  Prosecuted — Cost  of 
Giving  Opera  in  New  York — Some  Comparative 
Tables 267 


CHAPTER  XII 

ANOTHER  EXPERIMENT  WITH  ENGLISH  OPERA 
AND  A  GREAT  RUSSIAN  WORK 

The  Season  of  1912-13 — Additions  to  the  Metropolitan 
Company — Mabel  Garrison,  Melanie  Kurt,  Johannes 
Sembach,  Luca  Botta,  and  Arthur  Middleton — Ros- 
tand's "  Cyrano  de  Bergerac "  Done  Into  an  English 
Opera — Moussorgsky's  "  Boris  Godounow  " — A  Visit 
from  the  Chicago  Opera  Company  Brings  Novelties — 
Zandonai's  "  Conchita "  and  "  Les  Ranz  des  Vaches," 
a  German  Version  of  Kienzl's  "  Kuhreigen "  .  .  .  286 


CHAPTER  XIII 


Operas  Produced  in  1913-14 — A  Visit  from  the  Chicago- 
Philadelphia  Company — Death  of  Putnam  Griswold — 
Strauss's  "  Der  Rosenkavalier  " — The  Theatrical  Value 
of  Pruriency — Benelli's  Poetical  Drama  "  L'Amore  dei 
tre  Re  " — Montemezzi's  Music — Its  Racial  Character — 
Constructive  Elements  Borrowed  from  Russia — Signor 
Ferrari-Fontana — Lucrezia  Bori — "  Madeleine  " — Light 
French  Comedy  and  Heavy  Music — "  Don  Quichotte  " 
— Cervantes  Travestied — Mary  Garden  and  "  Monna 
Vanna  " — Charpentier's  "  Julien  " — An  Abortive  Sequel 
to  "  Louise  " — A  Comedy  by  Moliere  Done  Into  a  De- 
lightful Opera — Wolf-Ferrari's  "  L'Amore  Medico  " — 
Death  of  Mme.  Nordica 309 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  YEARS  OF  THE  NEUTRALITY  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES  IN  THE  WAR 

Reduction  of  Expenses  Planned — Caruso  and  Farrar — 
Phenomenal  Activity  of  the  Company — New  Singers 
and  Their  Debuts — The  Season  1914-15 — New  Operas — 
"  Madame  Sans*Gene  " — "  L'Oracolo  " — "  Euryanthe  " — 
Weber  and  Wagner — The  Latter's  Debts  to  the  Former 
— Departure  of  Alfred  Hertz — His  Record  at  the 


CONTENTS 


Metropolitan — The  Loss  of  Tpscanini — Season  of  1915- 
16 — Arrival  of  Mme.  Barrientos — "Prince  Igor" — 
"  Goyescas  " — Spanish  Pianoforte  Pieces  Made  Into  an 
Opera — Fate  of  the  Composer — A  German  Version  of 
"The  Taming  of  the  Shrew" — 1916-17 — Unnatural 
Activity — "  Les  Pecheurs  de  Perles  " — Its  American 
History — Gluck's  "  Iphigenia  auf  Tauris  " — "  The  Can- 
terbury Pilgrims" — A  Sporadic  but  Ideal  Effort  for 
American  Art — The  Society  of  American  Singers — 
Mozart's  "  Bastien  et  Bastienne "  and  "  The  Im- 
presario"   331 


CHAPTER  XV 

CONCERT  MUSIC  AND  THE  OPERA  IN 
WAR-TIME 

Gradual  Change  in  Sentiment  After  the  Outbreak  of  Hos- 
tilities— Mr.  Bodanzky — A  Boycott  Declared  by  Ger- 
many Against  American  Opera  Houses — Engaging 
German  Singers  in  the  Olden  Time — Draw-poker  as  an 
Emollient — First  Demonstrations  of  Patriotic  Feeling 
at  the  Metropolitan — The  Question  of  Enemy  Aliens  in 
the  Company — Hans  Tauscher  and  His  Wife  Mme. 
Gadski — A  Plea  for  Native  Singers — Changes  in  the 
Concert-field — Foreign  Artists — Kunwald  and  Muck 
Interned — A  Tax  on  Entertainments — The  Opera  Pros- 
pectus for  1917-18 — Dismissal  of  German  Singers — The 
Historical  Narrative  Resumed — A  Visit  from  the  Chi- 
cago Company — Its  Novelties — "  Isabeau  " — "  Azora  " — 
"  Le  Sauteriot " — Mme.  Galli-Curci — New  Works  at 
the  Metropolitan  —  "  Marouf  "  —  Saint  Elizabeth  "  — 
"  Lodoletta  "—A  Revival  of  "  Le  Prophete  "— "  Le  Coq 
d'Or  " — "  Shanewis  " — What  of  the  Future  ?  .  376 

APPENDIX 421 

INDEX 447 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACE 


THE  AUTHOR Frontispiece 

FRANCES  ALDA.  IN  "  MAROUF  " 400 

PASQUALE  AMATO,  IN  "  LA  FANCIULLA  DEL  WEST  "  .       .       .  294 

PASQUALE  AMATO,  AS  CYRANO  DE  BERGERAC 310 

MARIA  BARRIENTOS,  AS  LAKME 350 

ARTUR   BODANSKY,   CONDUCTOR  AT  THE   METROPOLITAN   OPERA 

HOUSE          378 

LUCREZIA   BORI,   IN   "  L'AMORE   DEI   TRE   RE" 3l8 

SOPHIE  BRASLAU,  AS  SHANEWIS 412 

CHARLES  WAKEFIELD  CADMAN,  COMPOSER  OF  "  SHANEWIS  "      .  392 

ENRICO  CARUSO,  AS  JULIEN 326 

ENRICO  CARUSO,  IN  "  SAMSON  ET  DALILA  " 330 

ENRICO  CARUSO,  IN  "LES  P^CHEURS  DE  PERLES"  ....  362 

GIUSEPPE  DE  LUCA,  IN  "  MAROUF  " 400 

EMMY   DESTINN 40 

EMMY  DESTINN,  IN  "DiE  VERKAUFTE  BRAUT"     ....  40 

ADAMO  DIDUR,  IN  "  BORIS  GODOUNOW  " 296 

ANDREAS   DIPPEL 32 

EMMA  EAMES,  AS  JULIET 66 

FLORENCE  EASTON,  IN  "  SAINT  ELIZABETH  " 404 

GERALDINE  FARRAR,   IN   "  KONIGSKINDER  " 214 

AMELITA  GALLI-CURCI,  OF  THE  CHICAGO  OPERA  COMPANY      .  344 

ROSINA  GALLI,  IN  "  LE  COQ  D'OR  " 410 

GIULIO    GATTI-CASAZZA,    GENERAL   MANAGER   OF   THE   METRO- 
POLITAN OPERA  COMPANY 22 

MADAME  GERVILLE-REACHE,  IN  "ELEKTRA" 118 

CHARLES    GILIBERT 196 

ALMA  GLUCK,  AS  THE  BLESSED  SHADE  IN  "  ORFEO  "...  144 

OSCAR  HAMMERSTEIN'S  LONDON  OPERA  HOUSE      ....  82 

xv 


xvi  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING 
PAGE 

FRIEDA  HEMPEL,  IN  "DER  ROSEN KAV ALIER  " 310 

WILLIAM  J.  HENDERSON,  LIBRETTIST  OF  "  CYRANO  DE  BERGERAC  "  288 

LOUISE  HOMER,  IN  "MONA"       .      .      .      .      ...       .       .  262 

OTTO  H.  KAHN,  MANAGING  DIRECTOR  OF  THE  METROPOLITAN 

OPERA  HOUSE  .  '  ''.•  •  .  '.•'<••  ;  .  .  • '•-'-.  .  .  176 

MELANIE  KURT,  IN  "  FIDELIO  " 392 

MADAME  MAZARIN,  IN  "ELEKTRA" 118 

ITALO  MONTEMEZZI,  COMPOSER  OF  "L'AMORE  DEI  TRE  RE"  .  .  314 
ROBERTO  MORANZONI,  CONDUCTOR  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN  OPERA 

HOUSE 396 

MARGARETE  OBER,  IN  "DER  ROSEN  KAVALIER"  ....  310 

HORATIO  W.  PARKER,  COMPOSER  OF  "  MONA  " 256 

GIACOMO  PUCCINI 204 

HENRI  RABAUD,  COMPOSER  OF  "  MAROUF  " 398 

ROSA  RAISA,  OF  THE  CHICAGO  OPERA  COMPANY,  AS  AIDA  .  .  394 

LEON  ROTHIER,  IN  "  BORIS  GODOUNOW  " 296 

CLARENCE  WHITEHILL,  AS  ESCAMILLO  IN  "  CARMEN  "  .  .  .  140 

ERMANNO  WOLF-FERRARI 234 


CHAPTER  I 
INTRODUCTORY  OBSERVATIONS 

WHY  THIS  BOOK  WAS  WRITTEN— EFFECT  OF  THE  WORLD  WAR 
UPON  OPERATIC  CONDITIONS— A  NEW  ERA  PREDICTED— TEN 
YEARS  OF  UNPARALLELED  ACTIVITY— THE  INCIDENTS  MAR- 
SHALED—A FRIVOLOUS  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  NEWSPAPERS  AR- 
RAIGNED—NEW YORK  TODAY  AND  LONDON  TWO  CENTURIES 
AGO— THE  CULT  OF  THE  PRIMA  DONNA— CRITICISM  DE- 
FENDED—A CRITIC'S  DUTY  TO  ART,  HIS  CONSCIENCE,  AND 
HIS  TIME— PERMANENCY  IN  ARTISTIC  PRINCIPLES 

WHEN,  in  the  winter  months  of  1910,  I  gathered  together 
for  book-binder's  boards  the  "  Chapters  of  Opera  "  which 
had  been  published  in  The  Tribune  during  the  preceding 
summer,  I  sought  to  justify  my  historical  excursion  by  the 
statement  that  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  having  com- 
pleted an  existence  of  twenty-five  years,  was  about  to  enter 
upon  a  new  regime.  The  close  of  the  operatic  year  1917-18 
witnessed  no  change  in  management  in  the  institution,  but 
more  markedly  than  its  predecessor  of  the  decade  before  it 
closed  a  distinctive  era  and  presaged  a  change  of  artistic 
policy.  This  change  was  due  to  causes  vastly  different  from 
those  which  had  conspired  to  bring  about  the  earlier  reform, 
if  such  it  was.  The  United  States  had  become  embroiled 
in  the  European  war.  During  three  years  of  the  awful 
conflict,  the  period  of  American  neutrality,  our  opera  pur- 
sued the  even  tenor  of  its  way  without  grave  concern  or 
great  alteration  of  its  aims  and  methods.  Neither  did  it 
suffer  a  loss  of  prosperity.  Its  patrons  were  affluent  and 
their  emotions  had  not  been  aroused,  or  if  aroused  had  not 
been  directed  against  any  phase  of  artistic  manifestation. 
No  popular  prejudice  had  been  awakened  against  German 


2  THE  DAWN  OF  A  NEW  DISPENSATION 

music  or  German  musicians.  The  autumn  of  1917,  how- 
ever, witnessed  a  sudden  revolution  in  this  complacent  atti- 
tude. Incidents  in  which  the  Opera  was  but  slightly  con- 
cerned gave  proof  that  the  people  who  had  begun  the  war 
had  become  hateful  to  the  American  people  and  with  them 
their  language  and  their  art.  To  this  hatred,  which  I  can 
not  condemn  and  shall  not  condone,  the  directors  of  the 
Opera  had  to  give  heed  unless  they  wished  to  have  their 
artistic  institution  come  toppling  about  their  heads.  They 
proceeded  gradually  and  somewhat  grudgingly  to  prepare 
for  a  new  operatic  dispensation  whose  coming  in  the  season 
of  1918-19  marked  an  era  at  once  new  and  momentous. 
What  it  was  to  bring  forth  lay  on  the  knees  of  the  gods; 
but  it  was  obvious  to  the  student  of  our  operatic  activities 
in  the  past  that  the  institution  would  have  to  deal  with  new 
forces,  new  predilections,  and  possibly  be  compelled  to 
create  new  fashions,  tastes,  and  ideals. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  time  was  come  when  the  history 
of  opera  in  New  York  ought  again  to  be  brought  down  to 
date.  The  ten  years  which  have  elapsed  since  I  subjected 
the  doings  at  our  local  institutions  to  historical  review  and 
critical  study  were  filled  wth  the  most  amazing  incidents 
that  the  annals  of  the  lyric  drama  have  ever  recorded  in 
New  York  or  any  city  of  the  world.  Summing  up  the 
record  of  the  preceding  quarter  of  a  century  I  wrote  in  the 
summer  of  1908: 


I  have  seen  the  failure  of  the  artistic  policy  to  promote  which  the 
magnificent  theater  was  built ;  the  revolution  of  the  stockholders 
under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Leopold  Damrosch ;  the  progress  of  a 
German  regime  which  did  much  to  develop  tastes  and  create  ideals 
which,  till  its  coming,  were  little  known  quantities  in  American 
art  and  life ;  the  overthrow  of  that  regime  in  obedience  to  the  con- 
mands  of  fashion ;  the  subsequent  dawn  and  development  of  the 
liberal  and  comprehensive  policy  which  marked  the  climax  of  the 
career  of  Maurice  Grau  as  an  operatic  manager.  I  have  witnessed 
since  then  many  of  the  fruits  of  wise  endeavor  and  astute  manage- 
ment frittered  away  by  managerial  incapacity  and  greed,  and  fad 


INCIDENTS  IN  METROPOLITAN  HISTORY  3 

and  fashion  come  to  rule  again   where,   for  a  brief  but  eventful 
period,  serious  artistic  interest  and  endeavor  had  been  dominant. 

In  these  words  I  can  not  but  think  there  lay  a  formidable 
indictment  of  the  Metropolitan  management;  but  the  artistic 
sins  of  commission  and  omission  of  the  first  twenty-five 
years  were  petty  peccadillos  compared  with  the  follies  and 
scandals  which  marked  the  beginning  of  the  lustrum  which 
followed ;  while  in  the  decade  which  has  passed  into  history 
since  were  grouped  such  a  series  of  incidents  as  is  contained 
in  no  volume  of  operatic  history  ever  written.  There  were 
things  admirable  and  things  deplorable  in  these  new  occur- 
rences, and  whether  admirable  or  deplorable  they  deserve  as 
much  permanency  of  record  as  can  be  gained  for  them  by 
incorporation  in  a  book. 

Among  the  most  noteworthy  incidents  were  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  administration  of  Mr.  Heinrich  Conried,  which 
was  followed  by  disclosures  that  brought  the  business  as 
well  as  the  artistic  management  of  the  lessees  of  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  House  under  popular  suspicion ;  the  death  of 
Mr.  Conried  and  the  advent  of  Mr.  Gatti-Casazza  as  Gen- 
eral Manager  of  the  opera  company  which  had  taken  up  the 
enterprise  of  the  Maurice  Grau  Company;  the  conflict  of 
authority  between  Mr.  Gatti  and  Mr.  Andreas  Dippel,  whom 
the  directors  of  the  new  company  had  associated  with  him 
under  the  title  of  Administrative  Manager;  the  rivalry  be- 
tween the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  and  Mr.  Oscar 
Hammerstein,  who  on  his  personal  responsibility  had  con- 
ducted an  interesting  and  significant  operatic  venture  during 
the  two  preceding  seasons  at  the  Manhattan  Opera  House 
in  West  Thirty-fourth  Street;  the  ending  of  the  absurd 
rivalry  by  the  purchased  retirement  of  Mr.  Hammerstein 
and  his  abortive  effort  to  violate  the  contract  and  renew  the 
rivalry  in  a  new  theater  in  Lexington  Avenue ;  the  retire- 
ment from  the  operatic  stage  of  Mme.  Marcella  Sembrich 
and  the  magnificent  demonstrations  made  in  her  honor;  the 


4  THE  AUTHOR'S  PURPOSE  DEFINED 

building  of  the  New  Theater  as  a  kind  of  artistic  annex 
to  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House ;  the  failure  of  efforts  to 
habilitate  a  high  type  of  comic  opera  as  well  as  grand  opera 
in  the  vernacular  in  that  beautiful  establishment  and  its 
reversion  to  the  uses  of  the  modern  commercialized  drama 
against  which  it  was  conceived  as  a  protest ;  the  competition 
instituted  by  the  directors  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
Company  for  an  original  English  opera  which  resulted 
in  the  production  of  Professor  Parker's  "  Mona " ;  the 
effect  of  the  European  war  on  the  repertory  and  person- 
nel of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  culminating  in  the 
banishment  of  the  German  language  from  its  perform- 
ances. 

That  the  memory  of  occurrences  of  such  moment  ought 
to  be  preserved  will  scarcely  be  called  into  question,  though 
the  ability  and  the  methods  of  the  historian  will  offer  a  fair 
subject  of  controversy.  I  am  aware  that  I  shall  not  escape 
the  accusation  of  being  an  idle,  if  not  a  malicious  gossip, 
disposed  to  chronicle  small  beer  if  I  set  down  the  narrative 
of  some  of  the  things  here  catalogued  and  accompany  it 
with  critical  comment  on  the  doings  of  managers  and 
artists  as  well  as  the  operas  which  were  added  to  the  reper- 
tory during  the  period  passing  under  review.  Yet  I  shall 
adhere  to  my  purpose  for  several  reasons  which  I  believe 
to  be  valid.  The  historical  record  is  to  be  a  continuation  of 
that  contained  in  the  "  Chapters  of  Opera  "  alluded  to  in  the 
beginning  of  this  introductory  essay.  It  is  therefore  proper 
that  in  a  general  way  at  least  the  manner  of  those  chapters 
should  be  followed.  The  pertinency  of  interspersed  criti- 
cism I  shall  defend  presently  on  the  ground  that  it  is  essen- 
tial to  an  understanding  of  the  relationship  between  artistic 
strivings  and  achievements,  between  the  protestations  of 
managers  and  their  acts.  To  an  understanding  also  of  the 
extent  to  which  the  managers  pandered  to  tastes  which  the 
frivolous  attitude  of  the  newspapers  encouraged,  besides 
the  hero-worship  stimulated  by  managers,  artists,  and  the 


FRIVOLOUS  ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PRESS  5 

press  alike  to  such  an  extent  that  it  worked  an  estoppal  to 
the  creation  of  a  liberal  and  permanent  repertory. 

A  history  of  opera  during  the  last  ten  years  would  serve 
little  purpose  if  it  did  not  truthfully  set  forth  the  things 
which  shall  enable  the  readers  of  today,  and  haply  of  a 
future  day,  to  visualize  a  picture  of  the  social  and  artistic 
conditions  which  prevailed  in  New  York  at  the  end  of  the 
first  decade  of  the  twentieth  century.  The  picture  is  pre- 
sented, though  in  a  diffused  state,  in  those  contemporaneous 
chronicles  of  the  times,  the  newspapers ;  and  these  are  in 
nothing  more  truthful  than  in  their  reflection  of  the  fri- 
volity and  folly  which  obtained  then  and  have  endured  ever 
since.  This  I  say  with  a  heavy  heart  and  without  the 
slightest  desire  to  extenuate  or  defend  the  profession  to 
which  I  belong.  During  the  period  of  which  I  am  writing, 
even  in  journals  of  dignity  and  scholarly  repute  the  gossip 
of  the  foyer  and  the  dressing-rooms  of  the  chorus  and  ballet 
stood  in  higher  esteem  with  the  news  editors  than  the  com- 
ments of  conscientious  critics.  The  picture  of  a  comic 
opera  woman  or  a  dancing  doll  whose  sole  charm  centered 
in  a  pretty  face  or  a  shapely  leg  was  given  more  prominence 
than  the  judicious  discussion  by  a  trained  and  scholarly 
critic  of  the  performance  of  an  artist  who  was  one  in  a  hun- 
dred thousand;  and  the  chatter  of  a  Mary  Garden  or 
Geraldine  Farrar  about  her  religion  or  irreligion,  the  antithe- 
sis of  marriage  and  the  artistic  temperament,  or  her  taste 
in  dress  or  undress  was  editorially  viewed  as  of  more  conse- 
quence than  a  critical  discussion  of  the  new  score  of  a 
world-renowned  composer.  And  so  it  came  about  that  no 
matter  how  sternly  their  critics  held  themselves  aloof  from 
the  intrigues  of  the  theaters,  no  matter  how  punctiliously 
the  reviews  confined  themselves  to  the  artistic  side  of  the 
performances  and  eschewed  the  internal  and  private  affairs 
of  the  managers,  the  newspapers  in  their  editorial  and  news 
columns  discoursed  upon  the  wisdom  and  unwisdom  of  con- 
tracts made  or  not  made,  of  the  bestowal  or  withholding  of 


6  THE  NEWSPAPERS  AND  THE  PUBLIC 

roles  from  singers  whose  press  agents  kept  them  in  the 
public  eye,  of  honoraria  alleged  to  be  paid  and  remuneration 
alleged  to  be  deserved.  In  one  case  there  was  a  quarrel  be- 
tween two  singers  for  the  exclusive  privilege  of  appearing 
in  a  role  whose  chief  attraction  was  the  chance  which  it 
offered  for  the  woman  to  appear  in  a  costume  approaching 
nearer  than  any  in  the  operatic  wardrobe  to  that  worn  by 
Eve  before  the  fall  or  Phryne  before  the  court  of  the 
heliasts.  Here  editorial  championship  went  so  far  that  it 
provoked  fisticuffs  between  journalists  and  managers  not 
only  in  the  public  highway  but  within  the  dignified  precincts 
of  a  court  of  justice. 

And  all  for  nothing. 
For  Hecuba ! 

What  was  Thais  to  the  pressmen  or  they  to  Thais,  that  they 
should  have  fought  for  her? 

I  am  familiar  with  the  journalistic  axiom  that  a  news- 
paper is  what  the  public  want  it  to  be.  The  axiom  at  the 
best  is  little  better  than  a  half-truth.  In  politics,  civic 
morals,  literature,  and  every  form  of  art,  except  that  asso- 
ciated with  the  theater,  newspapers  strive  to  impress  their 
conceptions  of  right  and  beauty  upon  their  readers.  They 
do  not  enter  the  lists  in  behalf  of  bad  painters  or  devote 
columns  of  description  to  their  daubs;  they  do  not  en- 
courage men  to  spoil  good  marble  or  bronze  when  they 
might  be  carving  decent  gateposts ;  they  do  not  seek  out 
illiterate  rhymsters  and  fill  columns  with  their  verses.  But 
they  play  the  role  of  stage-door  Johnnies  to  the  thousand 
and  one  "  movie  "  actresses  and  comic  opera  chorus  girls 
who  keep  publicity  agents  in  their  employ.  If  in  this  they 
reflect  the  taste  of  their  readers,  it  is  a  taste  which  they  have 
instilled  and  cultivated,  for  it  did  not  exist  before  the  days 
of  photo-engraving,  illustrated  supplements,  and  press 
agents.  Popular  interest  of  an  acute  and  incomprehensible 
kind  we  know  has  always  followed  the  great  people  of  the 


POPULAR  INTEREST  IN  STAGE  PERFORMERS    7 

lyric  stage ;  but  never  as  now  (assuming  that  the  newspapers 
are  faithful  mirrors)  the  groundlings.  Popular  infatuation 
with  stage-people  of  all  kinds  is  probably  as  old  as  the  stage 
itself.  No  doubt  the  people  of  ancient  Rome  split  them- 
selves into  parties  and  quarreled  about  the  merits  of  glad- 
iators, singers,  flautists,  kitharists,  and  dancers  two  thou- 
sand years  ago.  The  phenomenon,  inasmuch  as  it  marked 
the  operatic  history  of  the  decade  of  which  I  am  writing, 
more  emphatically  than  any  period  within  a  generation  is 
deserving  of  study.  There  can  be  no  opera  without  prima 
donnas  and,  it  would  seem,  no  prima  donnas  without  jeal- 
ousies, squabbles,  and  rancor.  An  entertaining  and  divert- 
ing chapter  illustrating  the  truism  may  be  extracted  from 
the  history  of  Italian  opera  in  London.  The  coming  of  the 
prima  donna  (the  Italian  lady,  of  course)  had  to  wait  upon 
the  introduction  of  Italian  opera,  and  so  none  of  the  great 
singers  of  the  seventeenth  century  who  were  identified  with 
the  first  hundred  years  of  the  lyric  drama  were  heard  in 
England.  Scarcely  had  the  first  of  the  tuneful  tribe  ap- 
peared across  the  Channel,  however,  before  there  arose  the 
rivalries  and  scandals  which  have  made  up  a  large  part  of 
the  prima  donna's  history  ever  since.  The  first  of  record 
was  Margarita  de  1'Epine ;  but  she  sang  only  in  Italian  and 
in  concerts  and  did  not  get  an  opportunity  in  opera  until 
Buononcini's  "  Almahide  "  came  and  provided  Addison  with 
a  chance  to  air  his  delightful  wit  at  the  expense  of  the  new 
style  of  entertainment  and  the  public  that  affected  to  like  it. 
By  that  time,  too,  the  lady  already  had  an  English  rival  in 
Mrs.  Tofts,  whose  early  success  disclosed  the  innate  char- 
acter of  operatic  partisans — for  her  champions  hooted  and 
hissed  the  Italian  woman  when  she  sang  in  Drury  Lane  in 
1740.  Knights  of  the  quill,  who  in  that  age  delighted  in 
satire,  carried  the  warfare  into  the  public  prints,  and  we 
have  preserved  for  us  specimens  of  the  gentle  art  of  satirists 
who,  when  they  were  unable  to  find  fault  with  the  singing 
of  their  victims,  did  not  hesitate  to  descant  upon  their  real 


8  PRAISE  AND  ABUSE  OF  PRIMA  DONNAS 

or  supposed  moral  imperfections.  It  was  Swift  who  in  his 
"Journal  to  Stella"  spoke  of  the  Italian  lady  as  "  Mar- 
garita and  her  sister  and  another  drab,  and  a  parcel  of 
fiddlers  at  Windsor  " ;  while  an  unnamed  scribbler,  address- 
ing Mrs.  Tofts,  wrote : 

So  bright  is  thy  beauty,  so  charming  thy  song, 

That  it  draws  both  the  beasts  and  their  Orpheus  along; 

But  such  is  thy  av'rice  and  such  is  thy  pride, 

That  the  beasts  must  have  starved  and  the  poet  have  died. 

If  one  were  disposed  to  look  a  bit  curiously  into  the 
rivalries  between  prima  donnas  in  the  eighteenth  century 
and  the  social  feuds  to  which  they  gave  rise,  it  would  not  be 
very  difficult,  I  fancy,  to  trace  many  parallels  between 
London  then  and  New  York  in  1909.  There  was  a  party 
two  centuries  ago  that  espoused  the  cause  of  the  native 
English  singer  against  the  foreigner  and  rebuked  the  public 
for  affecting  to  like  foreign  art  and  foreign  artists  simply 
because  they  were  foreign.  There  was  such  a  party  eighty - 
five  years  ago  in  New  York  (I  am  writing  in  the  summer  of 
1918),  when  the  first  Italian  opera  house  was  built,  and  there 
is  such  a  party  now.  When  the  great  Cuzzoni  and  Faustina 
came  to  London  to  dispute  the  popularity  of  such  English 
singers  as  Mrs.  Tofts,  Anastasia  Robinson,  and  Lavinia 
Fenton,  Henry  Carey,  comparing  the  second  of  the  English 
ladies  with  Cuzzoni,  wrote : 

With  better  voice  and  fifty  times  her  skill, 
Poor  Robinson  is  always  treated  ill ; 
But  such  is  the  good  nature  of  the  town 
'Tis  now  the  mode  to  cry  the  English  down. 

Did  we  not  hear  something  in  like  key  in  1914  when 
Mme.  Fremstad  failed  to  get  a  re-engagement  at  the  Metro- 
politan and  it  was  rumored  that  Miss  Farrar  was  also 
going?  Dire  disaster  threatened  our  opera  then  in  the 
imagination  of  some  fanatical  admirers  of  these  two  ladies, 


HOW  POPULAR  FAVORITES  COME  AND  GO     9 

but  four  seasons  in  some  of  which  the  former  singer  re- 
mained wholly  and  the  latter  partly  away  have  passed  since 
then  and  not  a  brick  was  displaced  in  the  edifice  of  homely 
exterior  in  upper  Broadway.  Catastrophes  are  always  im- 
pending but  never  befall.  Since  I  was  honored  by  the  in- 
vitation which  made  me  a  member  of  the  editorial  staff  of 
The  New  York  Tribune  toward  the  end  of  1880,  I  have  seen 
singers  come  and  go  in  New  York  and  watched  the  opera  as 
it  weathered  many  a  crisis.  I  never  inquired  into  the 
motives  of  a  manager  in  engaging  or  neglecting  to  engage 
a  singer.  It  was  none  of  my  business.  I  have  observed 
the  departure  of  scores  of  popular  favorites  and  the  coming 
of  as  many  more  artists  to  take  their  places.  Patti  and 
Nilsson  and  Gerster  went,  but  Sembrich  and  Melba  came. 
Nordica  and  Eames  were  followed  by  Farrar  and  Frem- 
stad  and  other  idols.  Materna  went,  but  Lehmann  more 
then  took  her  place.  The  echoes  of  Brignoli's  silver  tones 
had  scarcely  died  away  before  Campanini's  magnificent 
voice  rang  through  the  old  Academy  of  Music.  Jean  de 
Reszke  went  from  us  and  deep  gloom  settled  upon  the 
Metropolitan,  but  only  to  be  dispelled  by  the  sun  of  Caruso. 
The  opera  did  not  collapse  when  twice  Caruso  departed 
from  New  York  before  the  end  of  the  season.  Loss  and 
compensation; — it  is  Nature's  law. 

It  has  been  disclosed  that  criticism  will  have  a  part  in  the 
historical  account  which  is  to  follow.  The  reasons  for  this 
have  also  been  set  forth.  Chastisement  will  not  be  its  pur- 
pose, but,  if  possible,  enlightenment.  Should  it  be  said  that 
criticism  is  ephemeral  and  therefore  valueless  I  shall  not  be 
disturbed  in  mind.  It  may  at  least  help  to  an  understanding 
of  the  picture  which  I  shall  strive  to  present  in  the  narra- 
tive. To  the  objection  constantly  urged  against  musical 
criticism  that  progress  in  the  art  has  uniformly  disclosed 
its  fallacy,  since  one  generation  of  men  frequently  accepts 
what  a  preceding  generation  has  rejected,  I  reply  that  no 
man  has  a  right  to  an  opinion  in  a  question  of  art  who  is 


io  DUTIES  AND  PRIVILEGES  OF  THE  CRITIC 

afraid  to  express  it;  and  the  foolishest  course  that  a  critic, 
lay  or  professional,  can  follow  is  to  withhold  his  judgment 
for  fear  that  at  some  future  time  it  may  be  found  that  his 
opinion  was  erroneous.  After  that  the  next  most  foolish 
thing  is  for  the  critic  to  sneer  at  the  honest  writer  of  the 
past  from  whose  views  the  majority  of  his  successors  have 
turned.  The  men  who  could  not  approve  of  all  that 
Beethoven  wrote  were  not  dishonest  fools;  nor  were  they 
all  imbeciles  who  objected  to  Schumann,  or  Wagner,  or 
Brahms.  It  is  not  idiocy  today  to  question  the  artistic 
validity  of  every  phrase  penned  by  Richard  Strauss,  or 
Reger,  or  Debussy,  or  Arnold  Schonberg.  Honest  antago- 
nism to  innovations  is  beneficial  and  necessary  to  sound 
progress.  It  provides  the  regulative  fly-wheel  without 
which  the  engine  would  go  racing  to  destruction.  It  can 
not  stop  progress  and  there  never  was  a  critic  honestly 
concerned  about  his  art  who  wished  that  it  should.  There 
is  more  cant  about  everything  new  being  good  than  there  is 
in  the  proclamation  that  old  things  are  good  because  they 
are  old.  The  former  assertion  is  too  frequently  based  on 
cowardice  and  ignorance.  No  critic  worthy  of  the  name  is 
afraid  to  speak  out  his  dissent  because  the  history  of  criti- 
cism has  taught  him  that  he  may  be  overruled  by  others  to- 
morrow, or  that  he  may  himself  change  his  mind.  If  he  is 
honest  and  speaks  from  conviction  there  is  likely  to  be  some- 
thing in  his  verdict  which  will  remain  true  no  matter  what 
the  winds  and  tides  of  popular  favor  may  do  to  his  utter- 
ances or  their  subject.  Beethoven,  Schumann,  Wagner,  and 
Brahms  have  won  and  held  their  sway  over  the  popular 
heart ;  but  there  was  much  in  the  criticism  addressed  against 
their  creations  which  was  valid  when  it  was  spoken  and  is 
valid  today.  That  residuum  must  go  down  to  the  credit  of 
the  critics.  They  were  brave  men  and  better  men  than  those 
who  sneer  at  them  now.  The  coward  in  criticism  who  has 
no  opinion  unfavorable  to  the  artist  who  is  his  friend  or 
affects  friendship  for  him,  who  pronounces  everything  good 


THE  STABILITY  OF  ESTHETIC  PRINCIPLES        11 

which  the  god  of  his  idolatry  admired  or  admires,  screening 
his  ignorance  behind  an  imposing  name,  will  be  in  no  danger 
of  being  overruled  by  posterity,  for  he  will  give  posterity  no 
reason  for  remembering  him.  His  influence  will  stop  with 
his  friends  or  the  friends  of  his  friends. 

Critics,  or  rather  the  critics  of  critics,  sometimes  go  to 
an  absurd  length  in  their  eagerness  to  discredit  their  fellows 
who  have  condemned  the  bumptiousness  of  the  self-styled 
futurists  in  music.  They  forget  that  despite  the  varying 
changes  in  manner  of  expression  and  even  in  the  content  of 
art  there  yet  remains  permanency  in  the  laws  of  beauty. 
I  recall  an  apologia  for  Schonberg  written  by  an  English- 
man in  which  the  honest  right  of  an  admirer  of  the  "  Iliad  " 
also  to  admire  "  Paradise  Lost "  was  categorically  denied. 
Can  there  be  found  a  more  striking  illustration  of  the  inti- 
mate relationship  of  art-works  separated  by  centuries  of 
time  than  this  writer  presented?  Is  not  the  beauty  which 
irradiates  and  vitalizes  the  Attic  tragedians  also  immanent 
in  Shakespeare?  It  may  be  that  ancient  laws  are  seeking 
new  manifestations.  Of  that  I  do  not  speak ;  what  ought  to 
be  obvious  to  all,  and  is  obvious  to  all  who  know  them,  is 
that  those  laws  have  always  been  studied  and  respected  by 
the  masters  in  art.  They  are  not  respected  because  they  are 
old ;  they  are  old  because  they  have  always  been  respected. 

It  should  cause  no  perturbation  of  the  musical  critic's 
mind  that  he  is  compelled  to  observe  that  tendencies  in  the 
plastic  arts  are  paralleled  in  music,  and  that  these  ten- 
dencies give  pause  to  his  colleagues.  His  is  the  duty  to  his 
conscience,  to  his  time,  and  to  art  to  speak  out  his  opinion 
about  the  things  that  come  before  the  public  judgment-seat. 
The  spirit  which  acclaims  everything  new  is  the  spirit  of 
ignorance  or  cowardice.  The  things  which  shall  be  great 
in  the  future  because  they  differ  from  the  things  that  are 
great  now  can  wait  for  the  future.  Better  to  fail  now  to 
hear  the  future's  evangel  of  beauty  than  to  proclaim  that 
to  be  beautiful  which  shall  not  be  recognized  as  such  here- 


12  THE  DUTY  OF  THE  CRITIC  TO  HIS  TIME 

after.  We  can  not  wrong  the  future;  we  can  wrong  the 
present.  How  long  shall  we  wait  ?  It  is  not  for  us  to  give 
heed  to  time.'  Speak  out  the  thought  of  today  today  and 
that  of  tomorrow  when  tomorrow  comes.  Be  not  affrighted 
by  the  noise  of  shouters.  He  is  a  very  young  or  an  unob- 
servant critic  who  has  not  seen  as  many  mediocrities  hailed 
as  geniuses  as  he  has  seen  geniuses  fail  of  appreciation. 
The  forces  which  are  invoking  in  behalf  of  the  works  which 
are  storm-centers  now  are  in  many  instances  personal  cults. 
They  reflect  the  spirit  of  the  times  in  things  sordid  and 
material.  This  is  the  age  of  reclame.  He  is  a  small  com- 
poser, indeed,  who  if  he  wishes  may  not  have  at  his  beck  and 
back  a  noisy  band  of  propagandists.  The  Schmidt,  Schulze, 
and  Meyer  societies  of  Germany  are  numerous  and  noisy, 
but  they  do  not  make  great  men  of  Schmidt,  Schulze,  and 
Meyer.  All  that  they  accomplish  is  the  corruption  of  critics 
and  the  degradation  of  art.  That  is  mischief  enough,  God 
wot!  but  it  would  be  worse  if  they  succeeded  permanently 
in  influencing  public  opinion,  for  that  would  mean  the  vitia- 
tion of  popular  taste  and  the  triumph  of  mediocrity,  ef- 
frontery, and  charlatanism.  Music  has  now  its  cubists  as 
well  as  painting.  Because  of  its  nature,  indeed,  it  offers  an 
easier  field  for  cubism  than  do  the  plastic  arts.  But  "  isms  " 
are  not  likely  to  triumph  over  the  proven  verities  of  cen~ 
turies ;  nor  will  they  long  endure. 


CHAPTER  II 

OPERATIC  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  BEGIN- 
NING  OF   THE   DECADE 

STATE  OF  AFFAIRS  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  SEASON  1907-08— RE- 
VIEW OF  THE  PRECEDING  PERIOD— IDEALS  LEFT  BY  MAURICE 
GRAU— THE  SUCCESSION  OF  MR.  CONRIED  IN  THE  MANAGE- 
MENT OF  THE  METROPOLITAN  OPERA  HOUSE— HIS  PROMISES 
AND  FAILURES— HIS  RETIREMENT— ENGAGEMENT  OF  MR. 
GATTI-CASAZZA  AND  MR.  DIPPEL— DREAMS  OF  WORLD  DO- 
MINION—DEATH OF  HEINRICH  CONRIED— HIS  CAREER— MR. 
GATTI'S  UNFORTUNATE  INTRODUCTION— WAGNER'S  DRAMAS 
IN  ITALY— MR.  GATTI'S  EARLY  LIFE— CONTROVERSY  BE- 
TWEEN THE  MANAGERS— SINGERS  INTERCEDE  FOR  MR.  DIP- 
PEL—HE  IS  ROUTED— THE  NEW  THEATER  BUILT  AND 
DEDICATED— A  BEAUTIFUL  IDEAL— A  LIST  OF  THE  FOUNDERS 

THE  history  of  opera  in  New  York,  so  far  as  it  is 
directly  concerned  with  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House 
prior  to  the  period  whose  incidents  I  purpose  to  relate,  falls 
into  four  eras  defined  by  as  many  changes  in  management. 
To  a  considerable  extent  defined  also  by  the  same  number 
of  policies  with  reference  to  the  public  and  to  the  lyric 
drama.  These  preliminary  periods  were  described,  their 
records  set  forth,  and  their  products  discussed  in  the 
"  Chapters  of  Opera  "  published  in  1909.*  To  an  under- 
standing of  the  state  of  operatic  affairs  in  the  American 
metropolis  at  the  date  set  for  the  beginning  of  this  narra- 
tive a  cursory  survey  of  the  preceding  quarter  of  a  century 
may  be  helpful.  In  1883  the  time  seemed  ripe  for  the 
amalgamation  of  the  Knickerbocker  social  regime  with  a 
new  order  of  society  in  New  York.  The  former  element 

*  "  Chapters  of  Opera ;  being  Historical  and  Critical  Observations 
and  Records  concerning  the  Lyric  Drama  in  New  York  from  Its 
Earliest  Days  down  to  the  Present  Time."  By  Henry  Edward 
Krehbiel,  Musical  Editor  of  The  New  York  Tribune,  etc.  New 
York :  Henry  Holt  and  Company,  1909. 

13 


14  SOCIETY  AND  THE  OPERA  IN  NEW  YORK 

was  rooted  in  old,  if  not  ancient,  traditions  of  birthright 
and  culture ;  the  latter  was  founded  on  wealth  and  the  social 
power  which  money  gives  without  always  commanding 
rights  or  privileges.  The  elements  were  at  one  in  the  con- 
viction that  a  box  at  the  opera  was  a  more  visible,  potent, 
and  necessary  sign  of  wealth  and  social  position  than  a  seat 
in  the  Stock  Exchange  or  a  mansion  in  Fifth  Avenue.  The 
institution  which  had  for  nearly  a  generation  been  housed  at 
the  Academy  of  Music  in  Irving  Place  could  no  longer 
accommodate  all  the  representatives  of  the  two  elements  in 
the  city's  fashionable  circles.  A  rapprochement  of  the  fac- 
tions had  begun  some  time  before  the  doors  of  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  House  were  thrown  open  in  the  fall  of  1883, 
but  the  union  was  not  sealed  until  a  disastrous  rivalry  be- 
tween the  old  and  new  operatic  institutions  had  taught  the 
lesson,  which  is  as  old  as  opera  itself,  that  no  metropolis  is 
large  enough  to  maintain  two  fashionable  opera  houses. 
The  distinction  indicated  by  the  word  fashionable  must  be 
kept  in  mind.  If  the  maintenance  of  opera  were  strictly  a 
matter  of  art,  rivalry  might  be  possible  and  even  helpful  to 
progress  and  success.  Opera,  however,  has  always  been  the 
toy  of  fashion,  the  glass  of  social  "  form,"  and  as  such  it 
can  have  but  one  home  in  any  city.  This  truth  is  as  frankly 
confessed  by  the  attitude  of  the  patrons  of  the  box-stalls  as 
it  is  felt  by  the  occupants  of  the  stockholders'  boxes.  The 
Metropolitan  Opera  House  will  maintain  its  present  posi- 
tion of  splendid  isolation  only  so  long  as  the  owners  of  the 
building  can  hold  it  as  the  citadel  of  fashion  against  the  new 
aristocracy  which  will  be  created  in  time  by  new  accretions 
of  wealth  in  a  new  class  of  the  city's  population  or  a  wider 
distribution  of  the  wealth  now  existing.  This  fact  brings 
into  vision  one  of  the  problems  which  are  to  be  wrought 
out  in  the  years  immediately  following  the  cessation  of 
the  war  in  which  the  world's  peoples  are  now  embroiled 
and  helps  to  make  the  study  on  which  I  am  engaged  perti- 
nent. 


A  CHANGE  IN  POLICY  COMPELLED  BY  NEED        15 

The  first  of  the  four  historic  periods  was  compassed  by 
a  single  season — that  of  1883-84 — in  which  rivalry  between 
the  Academy  of  Music  and  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House 
brought  disaster  to  both  institutions.  Though  the  new 
house  had  been  built  by  vast  wealth  and  had  that  wealth's 
powerful  backing,  neither  the  director  of  the  new  under- 
taking nor  its  promoters  had  a  wider  outlook  than  the  sup- 
porters of  the  old  Academy ;  they  held  to  the  aims  and  pur- 
sued the  methods  of  their  rivals,  relying  on  the  external 
glamour  of  the  new  establishment  and  leaving  the  interest 
of  the  public  in  operas  and  performers  to  be  divided.  The 
storm  of  misfortune  which  overwhelmed  their  representa- 
tive, Mr.  Henry  E.  Abbey,  threw  their  bark  on  a  new  course 
which  was  pursued  only  because  no  haven  of  refuge  was 
open  to  them.  No  pilot  could  be  found  willing  to  attempt 
a  second  voyage  under  instructions  which  had  led  to  ship- 
wreck. The  owners  of  the  house  had  to  charter  their  own 
ship  and  sail  for  ports  foreign  to  their  longings  and  unde- 
sirable in  their  eyes,  under  the  guidance  of  a  master  who 
sought  cargo  in  the  land  of  art  instead  of  the  realms  of  fad 
and  fashion.  Thus  was  inaugurated  the  second  period 
which  endured  from  1884  to  1891  and  which  wrought 
effects  the  potency  of  which  has  grown  with  years  in  spite 
of  the  fact  that  opera  house  owners  and  operating  com- 
panies have  time  and  again  tried  to  set  back  the  clock  to  the 
hours  which  it  marked  thirty-five  years  ago.  The  clock's 
gong  rang  disaster  after  disaster  through  more  than  seven 
lean  years  while  Maurice  Grau  was  assimilating  the  lessons 
of  his  own  past  and  learning  how  to  blend  the  system  which 
he  had  developed  with  the  teachings  of  the  seven  years  of 
artistic  plenty  under  the  German  regime  inaugurated  by 
Dr.  Leopold  Damrosch.  At  the  last  he  succeeded  in  fusing 
the  principles  and  practices,  the  matter  and  manner  of 
Italian,  French,  and  German  opera  into  a  polyglot  institu- 
tion which  satisfied  the  whims  of  fashion  and  also  met  the 
demands  of  art.  Thus  twelve  years  passed  away,  two  of 


16       DISAPPOINTMENT  IN  THE  CONRIED  REGIME 

them  in  silence  because  of  managerial  if  not  public 
exhaustion. 

The  administration  of  Maurice  Grau,  begun  in  company 
with  Henry  E.  Abbey  and  John  Schoeffel  in  1891,  was  con- 
cluded by  his  retirement  from  the  directorship  of  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  at  the  end  of  the  season  1902-03.  In 
the  last  five  years  of  this  period  the  opera  reached  its 
apogee  of  brilliancy.  Mr.  Grau's  associates  were  a  few 
intimate  friends,  none  of  them  eminent  in  wealth  or  social 
position,  who  gave  him  free  hand  in  the  direction  of  the 
enterprise  and  made  no  protestations  of  purpose  to  serve 
art  or  the  public.  Mr.  Grau  made  the  opera  financially 
profitable  and  artistically  successful  and  turned  it  over  to  a 
company  organized  by  Heinrich  Conried  to  which  the 
Metropolitan  Real  Estate  and  Opera  House  Company  leased 
the  building  in  February,  1903. 

Here  our  present  story  might  profitably  begin,  though  the 
five  years  of  the  Conried  regime  were  included  in  the  nar- 
rative of  ten  years  ago.  But  I  must  do  no  more  than 
generalize.  The  new  company  came  into  a  rich  inheritance 
and  the  public  into  the  righteous  hope  of  a  continuance  of 
the  institution  on  the  lines  which  had  brought  prosperity  to 
Mr.  Grau  and  gratification  to  the  lovers  of  art.  The  public 
was  justified  also  in  an  expectation  that  the  late  director's 
programme  would  be  extended  and  made  more  perfect ;  for 
Mr.  Conried  had  enlisted  in  his  enterprise  men  of  wealth 
and  social  position,  some  of  them  part-owners  of  the  build- 
ing, all  of  them  well  able  to  withstand  the  allurement  of 
money-getting  or  to  sacrifice  it  for  the  sake  of  social  pres- 
tige and  the  glory  which  would  attend  idealistic  strivings. 
That  the  majority  of  them  were  fired  by  this  lofty  ambition 
is  indicated  by  some  of  their  acts  during  the  Conried 
lustrum,  and  these  acts  it  shall  be  my  pleasure  to  laud ;  but 
I  can  not  withstand  the  conviction  that  within  that  lustrum 
and  repeatedly  within  the  ten  years  which  have  elapsed 
since  they  yielded  to  the  spirit  of  commercialism  which  was 


LOWERING  OF  THE  METROPOLITAN  STANDARD     17 

the  inspiration  of  Conried  and  also  to  the  clamors  of  a 
reactionary  element  among  the  boxholders  and  season  sub- 
scribers with  whom  the  opera  instead  of  a  serious  artistic 
institution  was  chiefly  a  social  diversion  and  an  occasion  for 
fashionable  display. 

The  opera  company  was,  and  still  is,  a  close  corporation 
which  takes  the  public  into  its  confidence  only  when  it  is 
necessary  to  defend  or  exploit  its  own  doings  or  purposes. 
Nevertheless  when  Mr.  Conried  issued  the  prospectus  for 
his  fifth  season  in  the  summer  of  1908  it  was  widely  known 
that  his  policies  and  methods  had  caused  serious  dissen- 
sions among  the  directors  of  the  operating  company.  Inas- 
much as  these  gentlemen  had  upheld  him  in  his  efforts  to 
introduce  "  Salome  "  into  the  repertory  of  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  until  the  owners  of  the  building  had  exercised 
the  right  of  censorship  and  exclusion  which  they  had  re- 
served to  themselves  in  the  lease,  it  seems  a  fair  conclusion 
that  their  dissatisfaction  with  Mr.  Conried  was  due  to  other 
than  artistic  reasons.  The  knowledge  which  the  gentlemen 
had  of  the  business  methods  of  opera-giving  was  in  inverse 
ratio  to  their  knowledge  of  business  methods  in  general,  and 
in  negligible  proportion  to  their  social  ambitions  and  zeal 
for  art.  They  had  perforce  to  learn  many  things,  and  some 
of  them  were  not  to  their  liking.  Amongst  other  things  they 
learned  that  a  system  of  farming  out  artists  with  whom 
they  had  contracts  which  brought  emolument  only  to  the 
Herr  Direktor  and  his  factotum  in  the  matter  was  in  opera- 
tion. Concert-givers  who  wished  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
services  of  Metropolitan  singers  learned  that  they  could  be 
more  advantageously  hired  through  musical  agencies  than 
from  the  opera  company.  The  cost  of  production  was 
steadily  growing,  but  there  was  no  corresponding  growth  in 
receipts  nor  obvious  reason  why  performances  should  cost 
more  than  better  representations  had  cost  in  the  past.  To 
answer  this  Mr.  Conried  put  forth  a  public  statement  which 
was  far  from  convincing.  The  manager's  perquisite  of  an 


18  MANY  PROMISES  UNREDEEMED 

annual  benefit  was  utilized  in  a  manner  which  was  lowering 
the  artistic  standard  of  the  house,  Mr.  Conried  giving  per- 
formances of  German  operettas  and  holding  out  such  lures 
to  the  public  as  the  spectacle  of  all  the  artists  in  the  com- 
pany dancing  in  the  ball  scene  of  "  Die  Fledermaus."  The 
director's  benefit  which  Conried  thus  degraded  into  a  vulgar 
sensation  was  an  institution  which  had  come  over  from  the 
preceding  administration ;  but  Mr.  Grau  refused  to  make  it 
the  basis  of  a  specious  appeal  for  public  support  and  frankly 
admitted  that  it  was  a  matter  of  private  agreement  between 
him  and  the  singers  whom  he  engaged.  When  the  reorgan- 
ized company  set  to  work  upon  internal  reforms  in  the 
season  1908-09  they  turned  the  affair  into  an  annual  benefit 
for  a  pension  or  "  emergency  "  fund,  and  such  it  has  re- 
mained in  name  ever  since,  though  how  a  pension  fund  can 
be  administered  by  a  corporation  whose  tenure  of  existence 
hangs  by  so  frail  a  thread  as  the  annual,  triennial,  or  quin- 
quennial renewal  of  contracts  of  lease  and  service  is  not 
easily  understood.  Enough,  however,  if  the  employees  of 
the  opera  company  are  in  any  manner  the  beneficiaries  of 
the  annual  performances  to  which  all  the  artists  contribute 
their  services  without  pay  and  for  which  the  public  pours 
out  a  largess  of  patronage  without  thought  of  charity. 

But  if  the  public  was  permitted  to  know  little  of  the 
business  affairs  of  Mr.  Conried's  company  it  was  well 
informed  as  to  the  reasons  for  its  discontent  with  the  com- 
pany's artistic  doings ;  and  this  discontent,  no  doubt,  had  its 
reaction  in  the  dissension  among  the  directors.  Fulfilment 
followed  none  of  the  directors'  flamboyant  promises.  Mr. 
Conried  had  said  that  it  was  to  be  his  first  aim  to  raise  the 
standard  of  performances  and  that  no  thought  of  profit  was 
to  find  lodgment  in  his  mind.  The  phrase  has  been  repeated 
ad  nauseam  ever  since.  He  also  gave  it  out  that,  though 
he  was  to  gather  a  galaxy  of  singers  such  as  had  never 
illumined  the  operatic  firmament  before,  the  "  star  "  system 
was  to  be  abolished.  The  old  practice  of  giving  opera  in 


NEGLECT  OF  THE  GERMAN  REPERTORY     19 

Philadelphia  was  to  be  abandoned  so  that  there  might  be 
more  time  for  rehearsals  in  New  York  and  less  exhaustion 
of  the  forces.  We  shall  see  how  far  the  Metropolitan  man- 
agement has  departed  from  this  pious  but  insincere  resolve 
since.  The  plan  of  giving  all  operas  in  their  original 
tongues  was  to  be  pursued  and  English  was  to  be  added 
to  Italian,  French,  and  German.  Mr.  Grau's  high  Italian 
and  French  standard  was  to  be  upheld  and  German  opera 
lifted  to  a  higher  plane.  An  earnest  of  this  promise  was 
seen  by  critics  and  public  in  the  engagement  of  men  eminent 
in  their  professions  like  Mottl,  Mahler,  Fuchs,  and  Lauten- 
schlager;  but  their  activities  were  hampered  by  Conried's 
incompetent  meddling  and  their  capacity  for  good  nullified. 
They  did  not  endure.  English  operas  there  were  none; 
Italian  operas  waxed  in  number  but  waned  in  quality,  some- 
what, I  fear,  in  deference  to  the  personal  wishes  of  some 
of  the  directors ;  French  opera  was  permitted  to  languish, 
and  this  despite  the  fact  that  in  the  last  two  years  of  Con- 
ried's consulship  Mr.  Hammerstein  built  up  a  dangerous 
rivalry  at  the  Manhattan  Opera  House  wholly  on  a  French 
foundation ;  German  opera  fell  to  a  low  level  in  the  sub- 
scription list  and  was  maintained  by  special  performances. 
The  vicissitudes  of  the  various  factors  in  the  polyglot 
scheme  during  the  five  years  of  the  Conried  administration 
are  illustrated  in  the  following  tabulation  of  performances 
during  the  five  years : 

Italian  French  German 

1903-04  46  10  36 

1904-05  41  16  55 

1905-06  53  7  49 

1906-07  55  15  38 

1907-08  77  12  39 

The  significance  of  these  figures  does  not  appear  on  their 
face ;  otherwise  they  would  indicate  little  else  in  respect  of 
a  change  of  policy  than  a  purpose  to  augment  the  Italian  list, 
which  purpose  reflected  the  wishes  of  a  majority  of  the 


20  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  GERMAN  RECORD 

directors  of  the  company.  The  German  record  must  be 
analyzed.  Of  the  thirty-six  performances  in  the  first  year 
eleven  were  devoted  to  "  Parsifal,"  whose  first  production 
outside  the  sacrosanct  precincts  of  Bayreuth  was  the  sensa- 
tion of  the  season  throughout  the  civilized  world.  Its 
attractive  power  remained  without  serious  impairment  in 
the  second  year,  when  it  received  eight  performances.  In 
1905-06  it  had  four,  in  1906-07  two,  and  in  1907-08  it  was 
relegated  to  the  special  list,  where  it  has  remained  ever  since 
by  virtue  of  its  potency  as  a  getter  of  money  from  the  multi- 
tude. In  like  manner  the  novelty  of  1905-06,  "  Hansel  und 
Gretel,"  had  eleven  performances  that  year  and  eight  in  .the 
next,  and  was  made  to  take  the  place  once  occupied  by  the 
Christmas  pantomimes.  Nearly  one-quarter  of  the  German 
representations  in  the  lustrum  were  devoted  to  the  two  sen- 
sations of  the  hour,  while  the  dramas  of  "  The  Ring  of  the 
Nibelung,"  which,  with  "  Tristan  und  Isolde,"  had  been  the 
backbone  of  the  German  repertory,  had  only  forty-three  per- 
formances, and  "  Tristan  "  only  nineteen  in  the  five  years. 
Moreover,  five  representations  were  wasted  on  "  Die  Fleder- 
maus,"  which  had  been  injected  into  the  repertory  to  enable 
Conried  to  put  all  his  singers  on  show  at  his  benefit,  one  on 
"  Der  Zigeunerbaron,"  and  one  on  "  Salome,"  with  which 
Conried  had  hoped  to  duplicate  his  profitable  "  Parsifal  " 
stroke. 

Enough  of  this.  It  had  been  decreed  before  the  middle 
of  the  fifth  season  that  Mr.  Conried  must  go,  and  for  a 
space  a  plausible  excuse  was  found  in  the  fact  that  he  was 
a  sick  man,  quite  incapable  of  performing  his  duties  in  an 
adequate  manner.  In  the  winter  of  1908  Rawlins  L.  Cot- 
tenet,  one  of  the  directors  of  his  company,  was  abroad  and 
rumor  had  it  that  he  was  negotiating  with  Giulio  Gatti- 
Casazza  and  Arturo  Toscanini,  respectively  director  and 
conductor  of  the  Teatro  alia  Scala  in  Milan,  with  a  view 
to  their  engagement  in  the  same  capacities  at  the  New  York 
establishment.  When  Mr.  Cottenet  returned  to  New  York 


A  SCHEME  FOR  WORLD  CONQUEST  21 

in  March  he  denied  all  knowledge  of  the  negotiations,  but 
by  that  time  they  had  been  consummated.  Mr.  Conried  also 
gave  out  denials  designed  to  conceal  the  purpose  of  the  com- 
pany to  put  the  direction  of  the  opera  in  the  hands  of  for- 
eigners,— a  purpose  which,  when  divulged,  caused  a  deal 
of  apprehension  on  the  part  of  a  large  and  faithful  contin- 
gent of  the  institution's  patrons  who  dreaded  the  introduc- 
tion of  Italian  methods  no  less  than  Italian  ideals.  How 
the  directors  met  these  apprehensions  by  the  association  of 
Andreas  Dippel  with  Signor  Gatti  will  presently  appear. 

Some  of  the  incidents  of  ten  years  ago,  when  viewed  in  a 
rearward  perspective,  seem  to  indicate  that  it  was  not  only 
a  desire  to  be  rid  of  Conried  with  which  the  directors  were 
filled  but  also  that  they  were  big  with  a  truly  Alexandrine 
ambition  to  conquer  the  spacious  operatic  world.  The  sug- 
gestion may  have  come  from  Grau's  assumption  of  the 
management  of  Covent  Garden  in  the  summer  of  1898,  or 
it  may  have  been  prompted  by  the  familiarity  of  the  di- 
rectors with  business  enterprises  of  vast  dimensions  and 
international  scope;  whatever  the  impulse,  they  seem  to 
have  indulged  in  day-dreams  which  recall  words  like  those 
of  Henry  IV's  wooing:  Shall  we  not  between  Saint  Denis 
and  Saint  George  compound  an  opera  company,  half  Ameri- 
can, half  Italian,  that  shall  go  to  Constantinople  and  take 
the  Turk  by  the  beard?  Already  in  October,  1907,  the 
stockholders  of  the  company  had  elected  Henry  V.  Higgins, 
managing  director  of  the  Royal  Opera,  Covent  Garden, 
London,  and  Count  San  Martino,  president  of  the  Royal 
Conservatory,  Rome,  members  of  their  directorate.  In 
December,  1908,  Eben  D.  Jordan,  of  Boston,  was  also  made 
a  director  while  Mr.  Higgins,  Count  Martino,  and  James 
Hazen  Hyde,  who  was  gone  from  New  York  to  live  in 
Paris,  were  designated  a  Foreign  Committee  of  the  Board. 
The  purpose  of  the  Metropolitan  in  electing  Mr.  Jordan,  it 
was  surmised,  was  to  protect  themselves  against  the 
machinations  of  Mr.  Hammerstein  in  Boston,  where  Mr. 


22          WAR  DECLARED  AGAINST  HAMMERSTEIN 

Jordan  was  building  an  opera  house  and  where  a  company 
had  been  founded  under  the  management  of  Mr.  Henry 
Russell.  Mr.  Hammerstein  had  poached  upon  what  the 
Metropolitan  people  looked  upon  as  their  preserves  in 
Philadelphia,  was  talking  about  taking  over  a  theater  in 
Baltimore,  and  seemed  to  be  contemplating  the  planting  of 
opera  houses  in  all  the  large  cities  of  the  United  States 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  coast.  The  Metropolitan 
Company,  instead  of  cutting  out  Philadelphia,  took  Balti- 
more also  into  its  scheme  of  performances,  affiliated  itself 
with  companies  organized  in  Boston  and  Chicago,  and  on 
October  19,  1909,  announced  a  purpose  to  give  seasons  of 
opera  in  Paris  during  May  and  June,  1910,  and  possibly 
1911;  a  plan  which  was  carried  out  in  respect  of  the  first 
year.  But  this  belongs  to  another  chapter;  sufficit  that  the 
plans  of  world  conquest  came  to  naught. 

Reports  of  the  engagement  of  Messrs.  Gatti  and  Tos- 
canini  came  in  January,  1908,  but  were  denied  by  both 
gentlemen,  as  cable  dispatches  told  us,  and  Mr.  Conried  pro- 
fessed ignorance  on  the  subject.  These  denials  persisted  as 
late  as  February  8.  Meanwhile  at  a  meeting  of  the  Board 
of  Directors  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  and  Real  Estate 
Company  on  February  7  Otto  H.  Kahn  and  Edmund  L. 
Baylies,  directors  of  the  Conried  Company,  made  a  request 
that  the  period  of  the  lease,  which  still  had  three  years  to 
run,  be  extended.  The  lease  had  been  framed  to  be  opera- 
tive only  during  the  administration  of  Mr.  Conried;  the 
directors  of  the  Conried  Company  asked  that  this  restriction 
be  withdrawn.  The  obvious  conclusion  from  the  fact  that 
the  matter  was  discussed  for  two  hours  and  then  laid  over 
was  that  there  was  a  division  in  the  Conried  Company  on 
the  question  of  the  retention  of  the  president  and  managing 
director.  On  February  10  it  was  reported  that  Conried 
would  resign  on  the  following  day,  that  the  resignation 
would  be  accepted,  and  that  he  would  be  succeeded  by 
Giulio  Gatti-Casazza  and  Andreas  Dippel  as  joint  manag- 


(iiur.io  GATTI-CASAZZA 

General   Manager  of   the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company 


ENGAGEMENT  OF  GATTI-CASAZZA  AND  DIPPEL     23 

ing  directors.  The  statement  was  in  accord  with  the  facts. 
On  February  12  the  directors  of  the  Conried  Company  made 
official  announcement  that  Mr.  Conried,  on  account  of  the 
condition  of  his  health  and  consequent  inability  to  continue 
in  charge  of  the  affairs  of  the  company,  would  retire  as 
president  and  director  not  later  than  May  I,  1908;  that 
the  company,  while  retaining  its  corporate  entity,  would 
change  its  title  and  be  known  thereafter  as  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  Company;  that  as  such  it  had  leased  the  house  for 
five  years  beginning  June  I,  1908,  and  with  the  approval  of 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  and  Real  Estate  Company  had 
engaged  Giulio  Gatti-Casazza  as  general  manager  and 
Andreas  Dippel  as  administrative  manager.  Significant  as 
bearing  on  the  rumors  of  the  real  causes  of  Conried's  down- 
fall was  the  statement  that  "  the  traditional  system  of  hav- 
ing the  manager  share  in  the  profits  will  be  abolished.  The 
managers  will  receive  a  fixed  salary  and  neither  they  nor 
any  employee  will  have  any  financial  interest  in  the  affairs 
of  the  company."  It  was  also  proclaimed  that  Gustav 
Mahler  and  Arturo  Toscanini  had  been  engaged  as  "  joint 
musical  directors,"  and  Mr.  Dippel  was  described  in  the 
words :  "  At  Mr.  Gatti's  side  will  be  Herr  Dippel,  already 
of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  long  known  and  liked 
by  the  New  York  public  as  a  sterling  artist  of  remarkable 
musical  ability  and  vast  experience,  tactful,  resourceful, 
enjoying  universal  esteem  and  sympathy  as  an  artist  and 
a  gentleman." 

With  Mr.  Dippel  the  opera-lovers  of  New  York  were  well 
acquainted.  He  had  been  a  member  of  the  Metropolitan 
forces  ever  since  the  last  German  season  directed  for  the 
owners  of  the  opera  house  in  1890-91  and  had  made  himself 
a  popular  favorite  by  his  extensive  knowledge  of  operas  and 
his  readiness  as  well  as  ability  to  come  to  the  rescue  of 
threatened  performances  by  taking  any  tenor  part  on  a 
moment's  notice.  An  amusing  newspaper  caricature  of  the 
day  pictured  him  as  sitting  in  his  dressing-room  in  under- 


24  DEATH  OF  HEINRICH  CONRIED 

wear,  an  alarm  clock  at  his  ear,  the  costumes  of  a  score  of 
characters  hung  on  pegs  within  easy  reach,  awaiting  the 
summons  of  the  call-boy.  His  appointment,  together  with 
the  retention  of  Mahler,  had  obviously  been  made  in  good 
faith  to  allay  the  fears  of  a  large  contingent  of  the  opera's 
patrons  that  the  German  branch  of  the  repertory,  already 
in  the  shadow,  was  to  suffer  total  eclipse.  I  shall  reach  this 
phase  of  the  story  by  and  by. 

The  new  arrangement  was  tentative  and  provisional  in 
character.  It  was  to  be  tried  for  a  year  and  then  a  per- 
manent plan  was  to  be  adopted.  The  owners  of  the  opera 
house  as  well  as  the  operators  were  disposed  to  be  cautious ; 
but  in  their  caution  they  planted  the  seeds  of  inevitable  dis- 
cord. A  Janus-faced  management  could  not  long  endure, 
and  it  did  not  as  we  shall  see.  The  capital  stock  of  the 
Conried  Metropolitan  Company  amounted  to  only  $150,000, 
and  on  this  the  owners  are  said  to  have  received  60  per  cent, 
in  dividends.  Mr.  Conried  sold  his  share  in  the  assets  of 
the  company  for  $90,000  and  a  member  of  the  board  of 
directors  of  the  reorganized  company  took  over  his  hold- 
ings. The  directors,  to  secure  themselves  against  loss  by 
the  termination  of  their  contract  with  the  owners  of  the 
opera  house,  had  insured  the  life  of  their  president.  Be- 
fore the  death  of  Conried  legal  complications  grew  out  of 
his  contracts  of  sale  and  insurance,  but  were  adjusted  with- 
out public  scandal  after  his  death. 

During  a  large  part  of  the  season  of  1906-07  Mr.  Conried 
had  been  ill  with  sciatic  neurosis.  After  his  retirement  from 
the  management  in  the  spring  of  1908  he  went  to  Europe 
in  the  hope  of  regaining  his  health.  He  died  of  apoplexy 
at  Meran,  Austrian  Tyrol,  on  April  27,  1909.  He  was  a 
native  of  Bielitz,  Austria,  where  he  was  born  in  1855.  His 
father  was  a  weaver  and  to  that  trade  he  was  apprenticed, 
but  though  little  educated  he  felt  early  longings  for  the  stage 
and  began  a  theatrical  career  as  a  supernumerary  in  the 
Burgtheater  in  Vienna  when  he  was  eighteen  years  old. 


CONRIED'S  CAREER  AS  MANAGER  25 

Under  the  name  of  Robert  Bucholz  he  was  a  member  of 
theatrical  companies  in  Leipsic,  Berlin,  and  Bremen.  He 
came  to  New  York  in  1878  to  be  stage-manager  at  the  Ger- 
mania  Theater  in  Tammany  Hall.  Mathilde  Cottrelly  lured 
him  to  the  Thalia  Theater  in  the  Bowery,  of  which  she  was 
director,  and  to  that  playhouse,  in  conjunction  with  Carl 
Hermann,  he  brought  von  Possart,  the  first  of  a  number  of 
stage  celebrities  whom  he  was  instrumental  in  bringing  to 
this  country — among  them  Sonnenthal,  Barnay,  Helene 
Odilion,  and  Kathi  Schratt,  the  last  of  whom  became  the 
favorite  and  intimate  companion  of  the  Austrian  Emperor 
Franz  Josef,  who  died,  as  did  she,  amid  the  horrors  of  the 
war.  It  was  as  director  of  the  Irving  Place  Theater  at  a 
later  date  that  Mr.  Conried  won  recognition  and  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  native  American  element  of  the  city's 
population  by  his  production  of  the  German  classics  and 
modern  comedies.  The  recognition  thus  won  put  him  in 
the  line  of  succession  as  manager  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House.  His  only  operatic  experience  before  the  attainment 
of  that  distinction  was  as  stage-manager  for  Rudolph  Aron- 
son  at  the  Casino,  where  he  staged  a  number  of  operettas, 
among  them  "  The  Gypsy  Baron,"  to  which  his  thoughts 
and  affections  returned  when  he  achieved  his  ultimate 
eminence.  A  large  fraction  of  the  financial  success  of  the 
early  years  of  his  Metropolitan  management  was  due  to 
Enrico  Caruso,  whose  services  he  had  acquired  under  a 
contract  made  by  Maurice  Grau.  Geraldine  Farrar  had  also 
been  picked  out  by  Mr.  Grau  for  the  Metropolitan,  though 
she  did  not  come  to  its  stage  till  the  third  year  of  the 
Conried  regime. 

Mr.  Dippel's  appointment  and  Mr.  Mahler's  retention 
were  obviously  made,  no  doubt  in  good  faith,  to  allay  the 
fears  of  a  large  contingent  of  the  opera's  patrons  that  the 
German  branch  of  the  repertory,  already  in  the  shadow  as 
I  have  said,  was  to  suffer  a  total  eclipse.  The  manner  in 
which  their  Italian  associate  was  introduced  to  the  public 


26  MR.  GATTI  AND  WAGNER  IN  ITALY 

was  not  calculated  to  quiet  suspicion.  Mr.  Kahn  invited 
reporters  for  the  newspapers  to  the  opera  house  and  intro- 
duced to  them  "  Count "  Centanini,  who  described  the  new 
general  manager  as  a  gentleman  to  whom  was  due  apprecia- 
tion of  Wagner's  dramas  in  Italy,  that  appreciation  having 
followed  his  production  at  the  Scala  of  "  Die  Meistersinger," 
"  Siegfried,"  and  the  entire  Nibelung  tetralogy.  The  serv- 
ices of  Mr.  Gatti  in  behalf  of  German  art  in  Milan  were 
incontestable,  but  the  claims  advanced  in  this  manner  were 
preposterous.  Mr.  Gatti  had  been  director  of  the  Milanese 
theater  ten  years,  but  nearly  all  of  Wagner's  operas  and 
dramas  had  been  performed  in  Italy  from  ten  to  twenty 
years  before  he  went  to  Milan.  Thus,  "  Rienzi  "  was  pro- 
duced in  Venice  in  1874,  in  Bologna  in  1876,  in  Florence  in 
1877,  in  Rome  in  1880;  "The  Flying  Dutchman"  had  its 
first  performance  in  Bologna  in  1877,  "  Tannhauser  "  its 
first  representation  in  the  same  city  in  1872,  "  Lohengrin  " 
was  heard  in  Bologna  in  1871  (the  year  of  its  first  per- 
formance in  New  York)  ;  Florence  heard  the  opera  in  1872, 
Rome  in  1878,  Genoa  in  1880,  Venice  and  Naples  in  1881. 
For  the  rest  the  records  of  La  Scala  disclose  that  "  Die 
Meistersinger  "  had  been  brought  forward  on  its  stage  in 
1890  and  received  sixteen  performances;  "  Tannhauser  "  in 
1893  also  receiving  the  same  number  of  performances. 
"  Lohengrin  "  was  in  the  repertories  of  the  seasons  1873, 
1888,  1889,  and  1891,  and  up  to  1898,  when  Mr.  Gatti  came, 
had  had  forty-eight  representations.  "  Die  Walkiire  "  was 
given  fourteen  times  in  1894,  "  The  Flying  Dutchman " 
eight  times  in  1893,  and  "  Gotterdammerung "  fourteen 
times  in  1897.  The  Wagnerian  drama  which  Mr.  Gatti 
introduced  to  Italy  was  "  Das  Rheingold "  (though  as  I 
write  I  am  obsessed  with  the  conviction  that  Mr.  Seidl  once 
told  me  of  the  enthusiasm  of  Italian  audiences  when  he 
conducted  performances  of  the  entire  cycle  by  the  Angelo 
Neumann  company).  These  facts  I  made  public  in  The 
New  York  Tribune  at  the  time  and  their  critical  point  was 


CAREER  OF  MR.  GATTI-CASAZZA  27 

not  blunted  when  it  became  known  that  "  Count  "  Centanini 
("  Mr.  Centanini  is,  I  believe,  a  count  although  he  does  not 
flaunt  his  title,"  remarked  Mr.  Kahn  to  a  Tribune  reporter) 
was  an  operatic  coach  who  had  been  accompanist  to  some 
of  the  singers  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  and  was  the 
husband  of  Mme.  Noria  (Miss  Ludwig),  who  had  sung  in 
Mr.  Savage's  American  company  and  a  peripatetic  troupe 
calling  itself  the  San  Carlo  Opera  Company  of  which  Mr. 
Centanini  had  been  assistant  conductor.  Of  course  he  may 
have  been  a  count  for  all  that,  but  he  became  Mr.  Gatti's 
secretary. 

Giulio  Gatti-Casazza  deserved  a  better  sponsor  and  a  less 
flamboyant  introduction.  He  was  born  in  Udine,  Italy,  on 
February  3,  1869;  studied  mathematics  at  the  universities 
of  Ferrara  and  Bologna  and  the  Reale  Scuolo  Superiore  at 
Genoa,  and  when  twenty-two  years  old  obtained  the  di- 
ploma of  a  naval  engineer.  His  studies  in  the  humanities 
and  music  were  privately  conducted.  At  the  end  of  1893 
he  was  called  to  succeed  his  father  Stefano  (who  had  been 
one  of  Garibaldi's  "  Thousand  "  and  a  senator  of  the  king- 
dom of  Italy — he  died  in  May,  1918)  in  the  board  of 
directors  of  the  Teatro  Communale  in  Ferrara  and  about 
the  same  time  was  made  superintendent  of  the  musical  in- 
stitute Frescobaldi  in  the  same  city.  In  1898  he  was  made 
general  manager  of  the  Teatro  alia  Scala,  the  most  famous 
theater  in  Italy,  and  in  that  position  he  remained  until 
called  to  New  York. 

Mr.  Gatti  spent  the  month  of  May,  1908,  in  New  York 
acquainting  himself  with  the  local  situation.  In  interviews 
with  the  newspaper  reporters  on  the  day  of  his  coming  he 
bewailed  the  dearth  of  good  dramatic  singers  in  Europe,  a 
dearth  which  was  so  great,  he  said,  that  it  had  created  a 
crisis  in  the  musical  world.  Ten  years  before  he  had 
organized  in  a  couple  of  months  a  company  for  La  Scala 
the  like  of  which  could  not  possibly  be  brought  together  at 
the  time  in  which  he  spoke.  This  plaint  has  been  repeated 


28         THE  ITALIAN  MANAGER'S  ARTISTIC  CREED 

every  year  since,  and  though  it  no  doubt  had  considerable 
foundation  in  fact,  it  turned  up  to  plague  the  manager 
whenever  singers  of  a  high  order  of  excellence  were  heard 
in  the  Hammerstein,  Boston,  and  Chicago  companies,  the 
most  notable  cases  being  those  of  Mmes.  Galli-Curci  and 
Raisa.  Touching  his  own  predilections  Mr.  Gatti  said: 
"  In  music  I  am  an  eclectic.  I  have  no  prejudices  in  favor 
of  the  Italian  or  any  other  particular  school  of  music. 
With  Toscanini  I  spent  much  time  and  energy  with  Wagner, 
so  much  so  in  fact  that  I  was  severely  criticised  by  the 
Milanese  press.  But  we  also  put  on  '  Louise '  and 
'  Pelleas  et  Melisande,'  but  they  did  not  have  the  success 
which  they  had  in  this  city.  The  reception  of  such  operas 
by  this  country  shows  that  the  American  public  is  unpreju- 
diced and  open  in  its  views."  How  little  Mr.  Gatti  appre- 
ciated the  taste  of  the  general  operatic  public  at  the  time 
was  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  first  novelties  produced 
under  his  supervision  were  "  Le  Villi,"  a  youthful  and  for- 
gotten work  by  Puccini,  and  "  La  Wally  "  by  Catalani,  a 
composer  unknown  in  America.  Neither  of  them  has  been 
heard  since.  In  the  same  season  the  German  contingent  of 
the  institution  brought  forward  D'Albert's  "  Tiefland," 
which  was  at  least  modern  in  style  and  had  a  good  dramatic 
story,  and  Smetana's  "  The  Bartered  Bride,"  a  masterpiece 
in  the  school  of  nationalism  which  held  the  boards  during 
three  seasons  and  might  still  be  given  were  the  constitution 
of  the  Metropolitan  forces  other  than  one  which  prohibits 
the  establishment  and  gradual  expansion  of  a  standard 
repertory.  In  this  respect  opera  in  New  York  is  as  much 
an  exotic  now  as  it  was  three-quarters  of  a  century  ago, 
and  nothing  done  within  the  last  ten  years  has  aimed  to 
make  it  anything  else. 

Mr.  Gatti  spent  the  summer  of  1908  in  Italy  and  returned 
to  New  York  on  October  n.  He  repeated  the  lamentation 
over  the  paucity  of  opera  singers  in  Italy  and  France,  but 
announced  the  engagement  of  four  artists  for  the  Metro- 


BEGINNING  OF  THE  NEW  REGIME  29 

politan  company.  Only  one  of  them,  Pasquale  Amato,  a 
fine  baritone,  got  a  footing  in  New  York.  The  official 
prospectus  for  the  approaching  season  had  been  published 
in  the  summer,  there  had  been  a  generous  popular  sub- 
scription, and  the  performances  began  on  November  16. 
The  fruits  of  the  season  in  the  field  of  artistic  achievement 
will  be  discussed  in  the  next  chapter  of  these  memoirs;  in 
the  remainder  of  this  I  must  concern  myself  chiefly  with  a 
controversy  which  resulted  from  the  foolish  experiment  of 
making  two  managers  representing  divergent  policies,  each 
supported  by  powerful  influences,  pull  together  in  double 
harness.  The  controversy  became  a  public  scandal.  Mr. 
Gatti  was  experienced  in  the  methods  of  operatic  manage- 
ment; Mr.  Dippel  was  a  novice.  Mr.  Gatti  was  familiar 
with  the  wiles  of  prima  donnas,  the  schemes  of  publishers, 
the  personal  aims  which  often  actuate  wealthy  patrons  of 
art,  and  knew  when  it  was  wise  to  defer  or  to  oppose  them; 
Mr.  Dippel  had  an  artist's  knowledge  of  the  artistic  tem- 
perament, had  been  suddenly  elevated  to  a  conspicuous  posi- 
tion in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  knew  as  much  about 
practical  affairs  as  a  few  years  of  service  as  a  banker's 
clerk  could  teach  him.  The  popular  opinion,  fairly  based 
on  the  declaration  of  the  directors,  was  that  he,  with  the 
help  of  Mr.  Mahler  and  Mr.  Herz,  should  have  free  hand 
in  the  field  of  German  opera.  Before  the  opera  house  had 
been  thrown  open  it  was  known  that  the  managers  were  at 
loggerheads.  On  November  25,  1908,  the  five  most  eminent 
singers  in  the  company — Mmes.  Sembrich,  Eames,  and 
Farrar,  Signer  Caruso,  and  Signor  Scotti — sent  a  letter  to 
the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  corporation  now  known  as 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  (it  had  obtained  the  new 
title  by  appeal  to  the  courts  after  the  Secretary  of  State  of 
the  State  of  New  York  had  refused  to  give  it  that  title  be- 
cause of  its  resemblance  to  the  title  of  the  house-owning 
company).  In  this  letter,  which  was  not  made  public  till 
the  controversy  of  which  it  was  a  feature  of  great  interest 


30  DISCORDANT  DUAL  MANAGEMENT 

was  over,  the  writers  said  that  having  heard  of  a  movement 
to  grant  Messrs.  Gatti  and  Toscanini  a  contract  of  three 
years'  duration  they  wished  to  express  a  desire  "  in  the  pro- 
tection of  our  (their)  artistic  interests  and  the  welfare  of 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  that  Mr.  Dippel  be  granted 
the  same  privileges  under  contract  that  may  be  acceded  to 
the  above-named  gentlemen.  Our  confidence,"  the  letter 
continued,  "  in  the  managerial  and  artistic  capabilities  of 
Mr.  Dippel  gives  us  sufficient  reason  to  associate  ourselves 
firmly  with  his  ideas,  which  have  been,  always  will  be,  and 
are  for  the  best  interests  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House." 
On  December  2  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Board  of 
Directors,  composed  of  Otto  H.  Kahn,  William  K.  Vander- 
bilt,  and  Frank  C.  Griswold,  replied  to  this  letter  and  gave 
their  reply  to  the  public  press.  The  committee  said : 

It  is  not  possible  to  administer  an  organization  like  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  under  two  heads,  and  it  was  never  intended  that  it 
should  be  so  administered.  We  do  full  justice  to  the  excellent  quali- 
ties of  the  administrative  manager,  Mr.  Dippel,  and  to  his  intelli- 
gent and  zealous  labors.  We  desire  to  show  him  every  fairness 
and  to  accord  him  every  consideration  and  opportunity  consistent 
with  our  conception  of  the  paramount  interests  of  the  organization, 
but  there  can  be  no  divided  artistic  authority,  and  while  there  re- 
mains a  large  and  important  field  for  Mr.  Dippel's  valuable  capa- 
cities, his  functions  are  and  must  be  subordinate  to  those  of  the 
general  manager,  Mr.  Gatti-Casazza,  who  is  the  supreme  executive 
head  of  the  organization. 

Mr.  Gatti's  contract  for  two  more  years  was  signed  with 
the  abrogation  of  an  optional  terminating  clause  contained  in 
the  first  contract,  and  Mr.  Dippel  was  left  to  work  out  his 
possible  salvation.  It  was  as  plain  as  a  pikestaff  that  Mr. 
Gatti's  word  was  law  in  all  matters  of  artistic  policy  and 
would  so  remain  for  the  ensuing  two  years  even  if  Mr. 
Dippel  remained  in  office  in  deference  to  the  wishes  of  some 
of  the  directors  and  the  lovers  of  a  broad  policy  among  the 
opera's  patrons  and  the  consent  of  Mr.  Gatti.  The  general 
manager  hastened  to  allay  the  apprehensions  of  the  public 


GATTI  TRIUMPHS  OVER  DIPPEL  31 

by  stating  that  the  patrons  of  the  opera  should  have  ample 
opportunity  to  listen  to  French  and  German  works,  and  as  a 
sort  of  guarantee  of  good  faith  announced  the  speedy  pro- 
duction of  "  Tristan  und  Isolde  "  with  Mr.  Mahler  as  con- 
ductor.    The  protestations  of  non-commercialism  and  high 
artistic  ideals  were  redeemed  by  the  production  of  "  Le 
Villi  "  outside  the  subscription  but  with  advanced  prices  of 
admission,   though   the  only  '  artists   appearing   in   it   were 
Mme.  Alda  and  Signori  Bonci  and  Amato.    The  five  singers 
who  had  signed  the  communication  to  the  directors  were 
indignant  that  the  answer  to  it  should  have  been  made 
public   but   not   the    letter   itself.      Mmes.    Sembrich    and 
Eames,  having  already  expressed  their  intention  to  retire 
from  the  operatic  stage  at  the  end  of  the  season,  their  three 
associates  did  not  ask  for  their  signatures  to  an  explanation 
which  was  published  on  December  n,  to  the  effect  that  Mr. 
Dippel  had  not  suggested  the  letter  and  that  no  animosity 
toward   Messrs.   Gatti   and   Toscanini   was   intended.      On 
December  10  at  a  meeting  of  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  directors  attended  by  both  the  managers,  Mr.  Dippel 
was  made  to  realize  his  subordinate  position  and  the  next 
day  he  caused  to  be  printed  in  the  newspapers  a  statement 
asserting  that  "  the  unfortunate  misunderstanding  "  which 
had  arisen  had  been  vastly  exaggerated  and  that  he  was  con- 
fident that  the  "  slight  differences  "  which  existed  would  be 
adjusted.    He  promised  in  the  future  to  devote  himself  to 
work  "  within  the  sphere  "  of  his  duties  and  deprecated  a 
continuance  of  the  public  discussion.    After  the  meeting  he 
went  to  Mr.  Gatti  and  asked  an  assurance  that  he  would  be 
retained  in  office  in  the  period  to  come,  but  got  a  flat  refusal. 
The  Liederkranz,  a  German  club,  offered  him  a  compli- 
mentary dinner  which  he  wisely  and  discreetly  declined  to 
accept.    He  had  met  defeat  horse,  foot,  and  dragoons.    On 
February  27,  1909,  the  Board  of  Directors  announced  that 
with  the  concurrence  of  Mr.  Gatti  it  had  been  agreed  with 
Mr.   Dippel  that   his  contract  as   administrative   manager, 


32      CONRIED'S  PLAN  FOR  A  NATIONAL  THEATER 

which  was  mutually  terminable  on  February  20,  should 
remain  in  force.  Mr.  Gatti  was  to  preserve  his  authority 
as  general  manager  and  assign  to  Mr.  Dippel  besides  his 
administrative  functions  an  important  part  in  the  artistic 
management.  Misunderstandings  and  discord  were  to  be 
forgotten  and  there  was  to  be  no  line  of  demarcation  based 
on  the  nationality  of  compositions  or  conductors.  After 
efficient  service  during  the  rest  of  the  season  and  the  season 
which  followed  Mr.  Dippel  went  to  Chicago  to  manage  the 
affairs  of  a  new  opera  company  there  in  which  some  of  the 
directors  of  the  Metropolitan  Company  were  interested  as  a 
part  of  their  scheme  of  universal  dominion,  and  his  subse- 
quent activities  have  little  or  no  concern  with  this  history. 
As  for  the  signers  of  the  appeal  made  in  his  behalf  Mme. 
Sembrich  and  Mme.  Eames  retired  from  the  operatic  stage 
as  they  had  said  they  would,  the  former  amid  scenes  of 
glory;  Caruso,  Farrar,  and  Scotti  are  still  members  of  the 
company  as  I  write,  and  the  great  tenor  was  presented  by 
the  directors  with  a  diamond-studded  cigarette  case  in  ap- 
preciation of  the  fact  that  he  had  helped  the  managers  out 
of  a  dilemma  by  singing  six  times  in  seven  days — for  $2,500 
a  time ! 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  turn  down  this  page  of  the  Chronicle 
of  Scandal  in  order  to  open  one  which  tells  of  an  idealistic 
endeavor  on  the  part  of  the  gentlemen  to  whom  New  York 
is  indebted  for  the  maintenance  of  that  proud  and  great 
institution,  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House.  Proud  and 
great  it  is  despite  the  follies  committed  by  some  of  its 
managers.  Mr.  Conried,  as  I  have  noted,  had  drawn  atten- 
tion to  himself  before  he  became  director  of  the  Opera  by 
his  production  of  German  plays  at  the  Irving  Place  Theater. 
By  encouraging  the  interest  in  the  drama  which  had  begun 
to  show  itself  in  the  universities  he  became  almost  a  na- 
tional figure.  He  dreamed  a  dream  of  a  national  theater 
endowed  by  the  government  and  what  he  could  not  realize 
on  a  country-wide  scale  he  attempted  to  bring  to  pass  with 


AXDKKAS    UlPPEL 


THE  NEW  THEATER  IS  FOUNDED        33 

the  aid  of  the  men  of  wealth  and  social  prominence  by 
whom  he  found  himself  surrounded.  He  broached  the  idea 
of  an  endowed  theater  to  his  associates  in  the  Opera  Com- 
pany, but  the  directors,  after  seriously  discussing  it,  decided 
that  it  was  not  the  province  of  their  corporation  to  under- 
take the  task.  As  individuals,  however,  some  of  them 
joined  a  new  organization  which  set  the  establishment  of 
an  ideal  theater  as  its  mission.  The  founders  of  the  insti- 
tution which  gave  New  York  what  was  first  called  the  New 
and  is  now  the  Century  Theater  deserve  gratefully  to  be 
remembered,  for  the  playhouse  played  a  part,  not  inglorious 
though  apparently  fruitless,  in  the  history  of  opera  during  a 
few  years  following  Mr.  Gatti's  advent.  Their  names  were 
John  Jacob  Astor,  George  F.  Baker,  Edmund  L.  Baylies. 
August  Belmont,  Cortlandt  Field  Bishop,  Paul  D.  Cravath, 
William  B.  Osgood  Field,  Henry  Clay  Frick,  Elbert  H. 
Gary,  George  J.  Gould,  Eliot  Gregory,  Archer  M.  Hunting- 
ton,  James  H.  Hyde,  Otto  H.  Kahn,  W.  de  Lancey  Kauntze, 
Clarence  H.  Mackay,  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  James  Stillman, 
Hamilton  McK.  Twombly,  Robert  B.  Van  Cortlandt,  Cor- 
nelius Vanderbilt,  William  K.  Vanderbilt,  Henry  Walters, 
Harry  Payne  Whitney,  M.  Orme  Wilson,  and  Henry 
Rogers  Winthrop.  On  March  28,  1906,  the  founders  of 
the  New  Theater  Company,  through  a  building  committee 
composed  of  Charles  T.  Barney,  Otto  H.  Kahn,  Harry 
Payne  Whitney,  Eliot  Gregory,  and  H.  R.  Winthrop,  invited 
a  number  of  architects  who  had  agreed  to  enter  a  competi- 
tion to  submit  plans  for  a  building  to  be  erected  on  a  lot 
of  land  200  feet  front  on  Eighth  Avenue  and  200  feet  deep 
on  West  Sixty-third  Street.  The  jury  that  passed  on  the 
plans  submitted  was  composed  of  Charles  T.  Barney,  Otto 
H.  Kahn,  H.  R.  Winthrop,  Heinrich  Conried,  Stanford 
White,  Bonn  Barber,  and  Edgar  V.  Seeler.  From  the  be- 
ginning of  the  enterprise  Mr.  Conried  had  been  relied  on 
for  expert  technical  advice,  though  I  have  been  assured 
that  it  never  had  been  contemplated  that  he  should  be 


34  PURPOSES  OF  THE  NEW  THEATER 

director  of  the  theater.  The  purpose  of  the  gentlemen  who 
undertook  this  beautiful  work  was  set  out  in  the  instruc- 
tions to  the  architects  in  these  words : 

The  conception  which  the  Founders  of  the  New  Theater  Com- 
pany desire  to  express  in  concrete  form  by  means  of  this  competi- 
tion is  a  building  suitable  for  the  production  of  the  classical  drama 
and  of  modern  plays  and  light  opera  of  genuine  merit  in  a  manner 
worthy  of  the  best  traditions  of  the  stage.  By  light  opera  is  meant 
the  kind  of  performances  to  which  the  Paris  Opera  Comique  is 
dedicated.  The  theater  is  not  in  any  sense  a  commercial  venture 
but  is  to  be  maintained  for  the  sake  of  art.  By  the  standard  of  its 
performances  and  the  spirit  of  its  administration  it  is  the  intention 
of  the  founders  to  place  it  in  the  relation  toward  dramatic  art  and 
literature  occupied  by  the  principal  national  theaters  of  Europe.  It 
is  designed  not  only  to  foster  and  stimulate  art,  but  also  to  furnish  a 
school  of  musical  and  dramatic  art.  All  net  profits  will  be  directed 
to  the  development  of  such  a  school,  accumulation  of  an  endow- 
ment fund  for  the  institution,  the  creation  of  a  pension  fund,  and 
other  like  purposes. 

The  award  for  architectural  plans  went  to  Messrs.  Car- 
rere  and  Hastings,  and  the  cornerstone  of  the  beautiful 
building  which  was  erected  under  their  supervision  was  laid 
on  December  15,  1908.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  President  of 
the  United  States,  sent  a  letter  to  the  gathering  invited  to 
the  ceremony  by  the  founders  in  which  he  said :  "  I  am  of 
course  in  cordial  sympathy  with  your  aims  to  give  special 
encouragement  to  both  playwrights  and  actors  who  are 
native  to  our  own  soil  and  I  observe  with  especial  pleasure 
the  fact  that  the  statutes  under  which  your  theater  will  be 
run  provide  that  it  is  to  be  without  any  thought  of  profit, 
and  that  any  pecuniary  benefits  which  may  result  from  its 
operation  shall  be  used  for  the  creation  of  an  endowment 
and  pension  fund  for  the  maintenance  of  a  school  of  dra- 
matic art  and  for  other  purposes  of  the  same  kind."  The 
Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Charles  E.  Hughes, 
sent  a  message  regretting  his  inability  to  be  present  and 
giving  assurance  of  his  wishes  for  the  success  of  the 
enterprise.  The  Mayor  of  the  city,  Mr.  McClellan,  put 


CORNERSTONE  LAYING  AND  DEDICATION  35 

the  cornerstone  in  place.  John  H.  Finley,  President  of  the 
College  of  the  City  of  New  York,  in  an  address  on  the 
relation  of  prayer  and  the  drama,  said :  "  If  a  community 
could  make  its  playhouse  a  place  where  it  played  what  it 
wanted  to  be  when  it  wanted  to  be  at  its  best  the  playhouse 
would  do  as  much  for  its  clean,  wholesome,  spiritual,  and 
physical  life  as  the  prayerhouse."  Augustus  Thomas  also 
delivered  an  address,  Richard  Watson  Gilder  read  a  poem 
written  by  him  for  the  occasion,  and  "  The  Star-Spangled 
Banner "  was  sung.  In  the  cornerstone  was  deposited  a 
hermetically  sealed  box  containing  a  summary  of  the  exer- 
cises, a  list  of  the  participants,  copies  of  President  Roose- 
velt's letter,  an  ode  by  Percy  Mackaye,  and  Mr.  Gilder's 
poem,  together  with  a  description  of  the  building  written  by 
the  architects. 

The  New  Theater  was  dedicated  to  the  service  of  the 
drama  and  the  citizens  of  New  York  on  November  6,  1909. 
Mr.  J.  Pierpont  Morgan  presided,  Percy  Mackaye's  ode 
was  sung,  Governor  Hughes  and  Elihu  Root,  U.  S.  Senator, 
delivered  addresses.  After  Senator  Root  had  spoken  Mr. 
Forbes-Robertson  read  to  the  theater's  actors,  who  were 
grouped  around  a  bust  of  Shakespeare  on  the  stage,  Ham- 
let's advice  to  the  players,  closing  with  the  phrase :  "  Go ; 
make  you  ready."  The  guests  who  had  assembled  at  4 
o'clock  P.M.  were  then  dismissed  till  8  o'clock,  when  they 
came  together  again  to  witness  a  dress-rehearsal  of 
"  Antony  and  Cleopatra,"  with  which  drama  the  theater 
was  opened  to  the  public  on  the  evening  of  November  8. 
The  role  which  the  New  Theater  played  in  the  operatic  life 
of  the  city  will  be  disclosed  in  these  chronicles.  For  the 
land  and  building  of  the  New  Theater  the  founders  ex- 
pended approximately  $3,250,000. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  FIRST  SEASON  OF  THE  DUAL 
ADMINISTRATION 

THE  SEASON  1908-09— EMMY  DESTINN— A  PATRIOTIC  PRIMA 
DONNA— CHANGES  PRESAGED  BY  THE  WAR— SIGNOR  .TOS- 
CANINI;  HIS  QUALITIES  AND  TRIUMPHS— REFLECTIONS  ON 
THE  SEASON— D'ALBERT'S  "  TIEFLAND  "—INTER-RACIALISM 
RAMPANT— AN  AMERICAN  SCHOOL  OF  COMPOSITION— BOHE- 
MIANS OBJECT  TO  THE  AUSTRIAN  NATIONAL  HYMN— "  LE 
VILLI,"  PUCCINI'S  FIRST  OPERA— FIVE  GENERATIONS  OF  PUC- 
CINIS— CATALANI'S  "  LA  WALLY  "—THE  MUSICAL  REVOLU- 
TION IN  ITALY  —  SMETANA'S  "  BARTERED  BRIDE  "  —  MME. 
SEMBRICH'S  FAREWELL  TO  THE  OPERA  STAGE— CEREMONIES 
AT  THE  OPERA  HOUSE— A  COMPLIMENTARY  BANQUET— MR. 
HENDERSON'S  POEM— A  VERSIFIED  REPERTORY— RETIRE- 
MENT OF  MME.  EAMES— HER  RECORD  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN 
—SIGNOR  CARUSO  TEMPORARILY  INCAPACITATED 

WITH  the  New  York  public  disturbed  by  the  dissensions 
which  had  broken  out  in  the  management  before  the  doors 
of  the  opera  house  had  been  opened  for  the  first  perform- 
ance, the  friends  of  German  opera  fearful  that  the  new 
managers  would  prove  to  be  reactionary,  and  the  rivalry  of 
the  Manhattan  Opera  House  threatening  to  grow  more  and 
more  formidable,  the  twenty-fourth  regular  subscription 
season  at  the  Metropolitan  began  on  November  16,  1908. 
During  the  summer  sops  had  been  plentifully  thrown  to  the 
German  Cerberus — by  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Dippel  as 
administrative  manager,  Mr.  Gatti's  protestations  of 
eclecticism  in  taste,  and  Mr.  Toscanini's  devotion  to  the 
best  types  of  German  opera,  including  Wagner's  dramas. 
That  devotion,  it  may  be  said  at  once,  was  beautifully  and 
convincingly  demonstrated  in  the  season  and  afterward  up 
to  the  time  of  his  departure  from  the  Metropolitan  at  the 
close  of  the  year  1914-15.  The  terms  "  administrative 

36 


JOINT  DIRECTION  OF  THE  METROPOLITAN          37 

manager "  and  "  joint  directors "  were  construed  by  the 
public  generally  as  indicating  that  Mr.  Dippel  would  have 
powers  co-extensive  with  those  of  Mr.  Gatti  in  the  deter- 
mination of  the  artistic  policies  of  the  establishment,  and 
that  those  powers  would  be  exercised  specifically  in  the 
production  of  old  and  new  operas  in  the  German  repertory. 
The  plan  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  company  was 
vague  and  tentative,  and  it  was  obviously  necessary  that 
there  should  be  not  only  an  extension  of  the  term  of  en- 
gagement of  the  manager  and  conductor  who  had  been 
brought  from  Italy  but  also  a  sharp  definition  of  authority 
if  the  standards,  commercial  and  artistic,  of  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  were  to  be  maintained.  To  these  ends  the 
newcomers  from  abroad  addressed  themselves  vigorously, 
with  the  consequences  to  Mr.  Dippel  that  were  set  forth 
in  the  preceding  chapter  of  this  book.  Nevertheless  to  Mr. 
Dippel  was  given  large  authority.  While  Mr.  Gatti  re- 
inforced the  Italian  side  of  the  house,  Mr.  Dippel  reinforced 
the  German  with  artists,  scenery,  and  choristers  as  each 
thought  best,  under  the  supervision  of  the  Executive  Com- 
mittee of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  what  became  The 
Metropolitan  Opera  Company  as  soon  as  that  style  could 
legally  be  adopted.  The  prospectus  which  had  appeared  in 
the  summer  promised  that  under  the  "  joint  direction  "  of 
Messrs.  Gatti  and  Dippel  there  would  be  a  subscription 
season  of  twenty  weeks  consisting  of  one  hundred  per- 
formances on  Monday,  Wednesday,  Thursday,  and  Friday 
evenings,  and  Saturday  afternoons,  twelve  performances  on 
Saturday  evenings  and  a  special  series  on  Tuesday  and 
Saturday  evenings  "  devoted  to  classical  works  of  such 
composers  as  Mozart,  Beethoven,  and  Wagner."  Signer 
Toscanini  was  pronounced  "  the  foremost  conductor  in 
Italy,  the  leading  spirit  of  the  Teatro  alia  Scala  in  Milan 
since  1899,"  to  whom  was  "  due  the  elevation  of  the  musical 
taste  which  has  manifested  itself  in  Italy  in  recent  years." 
The  orchestra  was  to  be  increased  to  139  by  the  addition  of 


38  PLANS  OF  THE  NEW  MANAGERS 

55  players  to  permit  alternation  at  the  rehearsals  and  per- 
formances, thus  saving  the  men  from  overwork.  There 
were  to  be  two  sets  of  choristers,  one  for  the  Italian  and 
French  operas,  one  for  the  German.  This  laudable  aug- 
mentation and  distribution  of  the  choral  forces  had  already 
been  contemplated  by  Mr.  Conried  in  his  first  season.  I 
recall  with  amusement,  as  characteristic  of  that  gentleman's 
affectation  of  familiarity  with  operatic  affairs  and  lan- 
guages, that  at  an  interview  to  which  he  invited  me  im- 
mediately after  my  return  from  my  summer  in  the  country, 
he  remarked  that  the  simultaneous  use  of  two  languages  in 
a  representation  must  cease.  He  could  no  longer  listen  with 
patience  to  half  of  the  chorus  hailing  the  advent  of  Lohen- 
grin on  the  scene  with  shouts  of  "  Ein  Schwan !  Ein 
Schwan !  "  while  the  other  half  shouted  "  Un  sogno !  Un 
sogno !  "  His  suddenly  acquired  knowledge  of  languages, 
plenarily  inspired,  did  not  go  far  enough  to  enable  him  to 
distinguish  between  un  sogno,  a  dream,  and  un  cygno,  a 
swan.  But  that  was  a  venial  blunder  compared  with  his 
performance  when  at  a  rehearsal  of  "  Die  Walkiire  "  he 
railed  at  the  light  man  for  disobeying  the  directions  of  the 
prompt-book  and  had  himself  to  be  set  right  by  the  infor- 
mation that  a  different  act  than  that  which  he  was  reading 
was  in  hand. 

The  novelties  promised  for  the  season  were  Catalani's 
"  La  Wally,"  Puccini's  "  Le  Villi,"  and  Tschaikowsky's  "  La 
Dama  di  Picche  "  ("The  Queen  of  Spades")  to  be  sung 
in  Italian ;  Laparra's  "  Habanera  "  in  French ;  D'Albert's 
"  Tiefland,"  Smetana's  "  Prodana  nov&ta  "  ("  Die  ver- 
kaufte  Braut,"  or  "  The  Bartered  Bride ")  in  German. 
Frederick  Converse's  "  The  Pipe  of  Desire,"  and  Gold- 
mark's  "  The  Cricket  on  the  Hearth,"  or,  in  case  it  should 
be  completed  in  time,  Humperdinck's  "  Konigskinder  "  (not 
"  The  Children  of  the  King,"  as  the  title  was  translated, 
but  "Kings'  Children")  were  to  be  performed  in  English. 
The  following  singers,  new  to  the  stage  of  the  Metropolitan, 


PATRIOTIC  MISS  DESTINN  39 

were  to  be  added  to  the  company :  Ester  Adaberto,  Frances 
Alda,  Emmy  Destinn,  Bernice  James,  Felice  Kaschowska, 
Leonora  Sparkes  (soprani) ;  Clara  Boehm,  Marianne  Fla- 
haut,  Maria  Gay,  Matja  von  Niessen-Stone,  and  Mary 
Ranzenberg  (mezzo-soprani  and  contralti)  ;  Angelo  Bada, 
Rinaldo  Grassi,  Carl  Jorn,  Walter  Koch,  Ariodante  Quarti, 
and  Erik  Schmedes  (tenori)  ;  Pasquale  Amato,  Fritz 
Feinhals,  Eduardo  Missiano,  Jean  Note,  and  Walter 
Soomer  (baritoni)  ;  Paul  Ananian,  Enzo  Bozzano,  Adamo 
Didur,  Arthur  Hinckley,  Coretto  Paterna,  Giulio  Rossi, 
Erik  Schubert,  and  Herbert  Witherspoon  (bassi).  The 
conductors  were  Arturo  Toscanini  and  Francesco  Spetrino 
on  the  Italian  side,  Alfred  Herz  and  Gustav  Mahler  on  the 
German.  Concerning  the  newcomers  little  need  be  said. 
Few  endured.  Three  were  not  strangers  to  New  York: 
Mme.  Kaschowska  had  sung  in  the  German  season  at  the 
Metropolitan  nineteen  years  before ;  Mr.  Didur  (who,  with 
Signor  Amato,  has  remained  a  valued  member  of  the  com- 
pany ever  since)  had  been  enticed  away  from  Mr.  Ham- 
merstein,  as  had  Signor  Bonci,  the  year  before.  Mr. 
Hinckley,  an  American,  had  sung  with  Mr.  Savage's  English 
companies  and  Mr.  Witherspoon,  also  an  American,  had 
won  admiration  as  a  concert-singer.  Miss  Destinn  deserves 
more  extended  notice.  This  lady,  in  all  respects  a  superb 
artist,  for  ten  years  a  member  of  the  Royal  Opera  in  Berlin, 
had  been  under  engagement  to  sing  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  for  five  years ;  but,  so  said  the  knowing 
gossips  or  the  manufacturers  of  publicity,  she  had  been 
prevented  from  coming  to  America  by  imperial  decree. 
When  the  world  war  broke  out  in  1914  she  requited  the 
Kaiser's  partiality  by  using  her  tongue  and  pen,  the  latter 
at  least  pointed,  in  denouncing  Austria  and  proclaiming  the 
right  of  her  native  Bohemia  to  independence.  She  declared 
her  intention  to  become  an  American  citizen  in  February, 
1915,  and  in  April,  1916,  went  to  Europe  to  spend  the 
summer  vacation  in  a  castle  which  she  had  bought  near 


40         OLD  SINGERS  RETAINED  IN  THE  COMPANY 

Prague.  When  Miss  Destinn  wished  to  return  to  America 
she  was  refused  a  passport  by  the  Austrian  officials.  She 
appealed  to  the  Ambassador  of  the  United  States,  and  he, 
it  is  said,  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  document  as  a  courtesy, 
but  it  gave  her  only  forty-eight  hours  in  which  to  leave  the 
country,  and  the  lady  for  one  reason  or  another  failed  or 
neglected  to  avail  herself  of  th$  opportunity  which  it 
granted.  On  June  28,  1918,  information  came  to  America 
through  the  newspapers  that  Miss  Destinn  had  been  pro- 
hibited from  singing  at  the  opera  in  Prague  because  she  had 
placed  her  services  entirely  at  the  command  of  the  Czecho- 
slovak agitation.  Members  of  the  company  who  remained 
under  the  new  management  were :  Emma  Eames,  Geraldine 
Farrar,  Rita  Fornia,  Olive  Fremstad,  Johanna  Gadski, 
Marie  Morena,  Marie  Rappold,  Marcella  Sembrich 
(soprani} ;  Louise  Homer,  Helen  Mapleson,  Henrietta 
Wakefield,  and  Paula  Woehning  (mezzo-soprani  and  con- 
tralti)  ;  Julius  Bayer,  Alessandro  Bonci,  Aloys  Burgstaller, 
Carl  Burrian,  Enrico  Caruso,  Stephen  Delwary,  Riccardo 
Martin,  Albert  Reiss,  Giuseppe  Tecchi  (tenori)  ;  Bernard 
Bigue,  Giuseppe  Campanari,  Otto  Goritz,  Adolph  Miihl- 
mann,  Antonio  Scotti  (bantam)  ;  Robert  Blass,  Herbert 
Waterous  (bassi).  Improvements  which  added  to  the  com- 
forts of  the  patrons  had  been  made  in  the  building.  Two 
electric  elevators  were  installed  in  the  Fortieth  Street  lobby 
in  addition  to  the  two  already  there,  for  the  use  of  the 
patrons  of  the  dress  and  family  circles ;  the  seating-plan  of 
the  ground  floor  was  rearranged,  the  ceiling  and  boxes 
were  newly  decorated,  and  to  improve  the  acoustical  condi- 
tions of  the  orchestral  pit  it  had  been  enlarged  and 
equipped  with  machinery  by  which  its  floor  could  be  raised 
or  lowered  at  will. 

I  have  presented  a  greater  mass  of  detail,  much  of  it 
seemingly  trivial,  such  as  the  names  of  the  small-fry  per- 
sonnel of  the  company,  than  I  shall  in  future  chapters  of 
historical  chronicle.  The  reason  ought  to  be  given,  though 


H 
W 
P 

> 
2 

w 


MANAGER,  BOXHOLDERS,  AND  PUBLIC  41 

it  also  ought  to  be  obvious  to  the  reader:  We  are  at  a 
historical  cross-ways,  studying  the  beginning  of  a  period  in 
which  the  policies  of  the  institution  were  dictated  by  the 
wishes  and  predilections  of  the  gentlemen  who  controlled 
the  Opera,  and  the  whims  of  the  ladies  whose  wishes  con- 
trolled them,  and  the  conclusion  when  those  wishes  and 
predilections  were  compelled  to  yield  to  a  large  considera- 
tion— the  will  of  the  people  fixed  by  the  events  of  the  war 
in  the  Eastern  Hemisphere.  When  he  came  to  New  York 
Mr.  Gatti  could  consult  the  inclinations  of  the  stockholders 
and  boxholders  of  the  Opera  even  to  the  disregard  of  the 
tastes  of  the  general  public,  knowing  as  he  probably  did 
that  those  tastes  were  to  a  great  extent  subordinated  to  the 
desire  to  follow  the  dictates  of  fad  and  fashion.  When  the 
feelings  aroused  by  the  war — the  righteous  hatred  of  the 
German  nation  and  the  prejudice,  natural  if  sometimes 
irrational,  against  all  that  nation's  institutions,  its  art, 
science,  language,  commerce — became  dominant  they  com- 
pelled a  modification  of  the  policies  thitherto  pursued  with 
more  or  less  complacency.  Now  arose  the  problem  which 
confronted  the  management  more  inexorably  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  season  of  1918-19  than  it  did  at  the  close  of 
the  previous  year.  The  solution  of  the  problem  will,  prob- 
ably, demand  mutual  surrender :  the  champions  of  the  Ger- 
man list,  and  all  that  the  term  implies,  will  have  to  forego 
in  part  the  principle,  whose  artistic  righteousness  is  impreg- 
nable, that  the  language  to  which  the  music  of  a  lyric  drama 
was  composed  shall  always  be  employed  in  the  perform- 
ance; the  champions  of  the  notion  that  opera  is  merely  an 
elegant  diversion  will  have  to  look  for  principles  in  the 
selection  of  operas  and  methods  in  their  performance  which 
shall  promise  to  win  and  hold  popular  support.  Otherwise 
opera  will  go  by  the  board — at  least  for  a  time.  Possibly 
the  outcome  will  be  the  birth  of  national  opera  or  at  least 
the  beginning  of  a  policy  which  shall  work  to  that  end. 
Deeply  deplorable  will  be  the  day  when  the  Metropolitan 


42  .    SIGNOR  TOSCANINI'S  CONDUCTING 

Opera  shall  depart  from  the  principle  of  artistic  integrity 
in  performance  established  by  Maurice  Grau  which  gave 
the  institution  unique  distinction  throughout  the  world ;  but 
welcome  the  day  when  worthy  American  opera  in  English 
shall  be  included  in  the  polyglot  list. 

The  season  of  1908-09  began  with  a  representation  of 
"  Aida  " ;  the  notable  feature  was  the  conducting  of  Signor 
Toscanini.  On  this  I  commented  in  The  Tribune  as 
follows : 

Of  the  new  conductor  it  must  be  said  that  he  is  a  boon  ta  Italian 
opera  as  great  and  as  welcome  as  anything  that  has  come  out  of 
Italy  since  Verdi  laid  down  his  pen.  In  the  best  sense  he  is  an 
artist,  an  interpreter,  a  re-creator.  Without  such  men  music  is  as 
lifeless  to  the  ear  as  it  is  on  the  printed  page.  Signor  Toscanini 
brought  to  the  understanding  and  the  emotions  of  the  audience  all 
of  Verdi's  score,  body  and  soul,  as  it  lives  in  him,  mixing  with  it  an 
abundance  of  affection.  He  used  no  book,  but  that  is  a  matter  of 
small  importance  except  as  it  influenced  the  performance.  It  is,  of 
course,  as  a  brilliant  German  musician  once  said,  much  better  that 
a  conductor  should  have  the  score  in  his  head  than  his  head  in  the 
score ;  but  unless  he  can  convey  his  knowledge  to  the  musicians 
under  him  it  will  avail  him  nothing.  Evidently  Signor  Toscanini's 
head  and  heart  are  full  of  Verdi's  music,  and  his  transmission  of 
what  he  knows  and  what  he  feels  is  magnetic. 

Signor  Toscanini  never  gave  cause  for  a  reversal  or 
modification  of  this  judgment.  On  the  contrary,  everything 
that  he  did  in  the  conductor's  chair  from  that  first  night  till 
his  departure  for  Italy  at  the  end  of  the  season  1914-15,  not 
to  return,  increased  the  admiration  of  those  capable  of 
occupying  the  seats  of  judgment  for  his  great  talents. 
When  his  engagement  was  announced  his  name  was  known 
only  to  those  who  had  kept  themselves  au  courant  of 
operatic  affairs  in  foreign  lands.  Like  Mr.  Gatti  he  had 
suffered  from  the  manner  of  his  introduction  to  the  Ameri- 
can public.  Much  stress  had  been  laid  upon  a  tale  which 
related  how  he  had  arisen  out  of  an  orchestra  in  which  he 
was  playing  the  violoncello  to  conduct  an  opera  without 
notice,  and  had  begun  by  putting  the  score  under  the  seat  of 


THE  ITALIAN  CONDUCTOR'S  CAREER  43 

his  trousers.  This  was  to  emphasize  the  fact  that  he  had  a 
phenomenal  memory  and  never  used  a  score  when  conduct- 
ing. He  gave  many  occasions  for  amazement  by  exhibitions 
of  his  power  of  memory  while  in  New  York,  but  great  as 
was  that  faculty  it  was  not  the  most  admirable  factor  in 
his  equipment.  He  was  an  idealist,  of  which  fact  he  made 
lovely  proof  when,  some  years  later,  he  gave  a  marvelously 
poetical  interpretation  of  Weber's  "  Euryanthe,"  which  he 
had  introduced  into  the  repertory  because  it  provided  the 
link  between  the  German  classics  and  the  neo-romantic 
Wagner.  He  was,  or  rather  he  is,  a  native  of  Parma,  where 
he  was  born  in  1867,  where  he  studied  in  the  conservatory. 
Before  coming  to  New  York  he  had  conducted  opera  in 
Rio  de  Janeiro  (1886),  Turin,  Treviso,  Genoa,  and  Milan. 
The  causes  which  led  to  the  severing  of  his  relations  with 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  were  never  divulged.  That  there 
was  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  management  to  meet  the 
wishes  of  the  public,  which  fully  appreciated  his  great  gifts, 
and  the  fact  that  his  presence  in  the  conductor's  chair  was 
always  a  guaranty  that  there  would  be  no  perfunctoriness  in 
the  performance,  are  evidenced  by  a  cablegram  which  the 
chairman  of  the  executive  committee  of  the  directors  sent 
to  him  in  Italy : 

Am  happy  to  hear  that  you  are  considering  Gatti-Casazza's  propo- 
sition, which  has  my  fullest  approval  not  only  because  it  is  meant  as 
a  public  expression  of  our  admiration  and  gratitude  for  what  the 
Metropolitan  owes  to  your  unique  genius,  but  also  because  it  will 
give  still  greater  scope  and  effect  and  force  to  your  great  personality 
in  shaping  the  artistic  development  of  the  Metropolitan.  I  voice 
the  sentiments  of  the  Board  and  New  York  public  and  myself  in 
expressing  sincerest  hope  that  we  may  continue  to  enjoy  the  inspira- 
tion of  your  splendid  art.  You  may  rest  assured  that  anything  in 
my  power  to  make  your  work  here  sympathetic  and  satisfactory  to 
you  will  cheerfully  be  done.  Kindest  regards. 

OTTO  H.  KAHN. 

No  answer  to  this  telegram  was  received  by  Mr.  Kahn 
or  any  of  the  directors,  but  it  was  reported  that  Signer 


44  EUGEN  D'ALBERT'S  "TIEFLAND" 

Toscanini,  who  had  a  son  in  the  Italian  army,  was  patrioti- 
cally giving  his  services  to  his  country  by  directing  con- 
certs for  the  soldiers. 

The  first  novelty  of  the  season  was  brought  forward  on 
November  23,  1908.  It  was  Eugen  d' Albert's  "  Tiefland," 
produced  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Alfred  Hertz  with  the 
parts  in  the  play  distributed  as  follows : 

Marta Fraulein  Destinn 

Popa  Mme.  Forina 

Antonia Mme.  Mattfeld 

Rosalia    Mme.    Randa 

Nori Mme.  1'Huillier 

Pedro  Herr  Schmedes 

Sebastiano  Herr  Feinhals 

Tomasso   Mr.  Hinckley 

Moriccio  Herr  Goritz 

Nando  Herr  Reiss 

Mr.  Dippel  supervised  the  production,  Mr.  Hertz  had 
studied  the  score  with  the  composer  in  the  summer,  and 
Herr  Schmedes  had  created  the  role  of  Pedro  in  the  original 
performance  of  the  opera  in  Vienna.  The  Spanish  play,  by 
Angel  Guimera,  upon  which  the  opera  is  based,  had  been 
seen  in  New  York  a  little  more  than  two  years  before  in  an 
English  version  at  the  Manhattan  Theater  and  also  in 
March,  1908,  when  it  had  a  revival  under  the  title  "  Marta 
of  the  Lowlands."  The  story  plays  high  up  on  the  moun- 
tains of  Catalonia  and  low  down  in  the  valleys  (wherefore 
its  operatic  title)  and  presents  a  vivid  picture  of  wicked- 
ness, misfortune,  and  primitive  virtue  such  as  can  easily 
be  believed  to  be  existent  amidst  such  surroundings  as  it 
presents.  To  serve  his  own  ends  a  villainous  lord  of  the 
manor  lures  a  shepherd  from  his  hills  into  the  valley,  and 
in  the  guise  of  a  blessing  for  which  the  highland  man  had 
long  been  praying  gives  him  to  wife  the  woman  whom  the 
lord  had  held  in  vicious  thraldom  for  years ;  gives  her  to  him 
only  in  name  to  further  his  own  mercenary  purposes  but 
intending  to  keep  her  nevertheless  for  the  gratification  of 


A  JUMBLE  OF  INTERNATIONAL  ELEMENTS          45 

his  own  lust.  There  is  a  period  (brief,  for  the  action  is 
swift  and  all  compassed  within  the  space  of  a  day)  in  which 
both  victims  remain  ignorant ;  then  an  awakening  which  in 
the  woman  replaces  disgust  and  hatred  for  her  nominal  hus- 
band with  love  and  turns  the  obedience  of  the  simple  man 
of  the  hills  into  murderous  rebellion.  He  strangles  his 
fiendish  lord  and  master  to  death  and,  taking  his  wife  into 
his  arms,  carries  her  to  his  mountain  home,  where,  in  a 
purer  air,  she  is  to  awake  to  a  purer  life. 

A  combination  of  circumstances  invited  to  some  curious 
speculations  apropos  of  this  production.  It  was  a  German 
opera,  the  book  on  a  Spanish  subject  by  an  Austrian 
dramatist,  the  music  by  a  pianist  of  Scottish  birth  whose 
grandfather  had  been  a  French  cavalry  officer,  father  a 
Franco-German  by  birth,  an  English  dancing-master  by 
profession,  and  mother  an  Englishwoman.  The  composer, 
once  Eugene,  now  Eugen,  Charles  Francis  d'Albert,  music- 
ally a  product  of  the  National  Training  School  of  London, 
is  the  artistic  "  Man  without  a  country,"  since  so  far  as  he 
has  professed  any  allegiance  at  all  it  is  to  Germany,  though 
there  is  less  German  blood  in  his  veins  than  French  or 
English.  The  Italian  general  manager  of  the  theater  at 
which  the  opera  was  produced  had  been  honored  on  the 
eve  of  the  performance  by  a  public  dinner  presided  over  by 
Walter  Damrosch,  a  patriotic  American  born  in  Breslau,  at 
which  Horace  Porter,  H.  E.  Krehbiel,  George  B.  M. 
Harvey,  and  Count  Massiglia,  the  last  a  representative  of 
the  Italian  Government,  had  made  speeches.  Of  late  there 
has  been  much  speculation  touching  what  is  to  come  out  of 
the  American  melting-pot  and  such  a  mixture  of  elements 
as  had  representation  at  this  premiere  might  naturally  turn 
that  speculation  toward  the  question  of  the  American  school 
of  music  which  lies  in  the  womb  of  the  future.  Many  years 
before  I  had  remarked  in  The  Tribune  in  support  of  a  con- 
tention, steadily  upheld  ever  since,  that  America  must  and 
will  have  a  distinctively  national  school  of  composition,  that 


46  THE  AMERICAN  MUSICAL  MELTING-POT 

the  school  was  only  awaiting  that  "  vigorous,  forward  man  " 
who,  as  Walter  Bagehot  argues  in  his  discussion  of  the 
origin  of  literary  schools,  shall  strike  out  that  rough  notion 
of  the  style  which  the  American  people  will  find  congenial 
and  which,  for  that  reason,  will  find  imitation.  The  char- 
acteristic mode  of  expression  which  will  be  stamped  upon 
the.  music  of  the  future  American  composer  (we  are  still 
waiting  for  that  "  vigorous,  forward  man ")  will  be  the 
joint  creation  of  the  American's  freedom  from  conventional 
methods  and  his  inherited  predilections  and  capacities. 
"  The  reflective  German,  the  mercurial  Frenchman,  the 
stolid  Englishman,  the  warm-hearted  Irishman,  the  impul- 
sive Italian,  the  daring  Russian,  will  each  contribute  his 
factor  to  the  sum  of  national  taste.  The  folk-melodies  of 
all  nations  will  yield  up  their  characteristic  charms  and  dis- 
close to  the  composer  a  hundred  avenues  of  emotional  ex- 
pression which  have  not  yet  been  explored.  The  American 
composer  will  be  the  truest  representative  of  the  universal 
art  because  he  will  be  the  truest  type  of  the  citizen  of  the 
world." 

I  have  never  so  much  wanted  these  words  remembered 
as  now.  If  ever  there  was  an  opera  which  came  out  of  an 
interracial  melting-pot  it  is  "  Tiefland."  It  is  tragedy,  but 
like  "  Carmen,"  which  is  also  tragedy,  it  invited,  if  it  did 
not  cry  out,  for  the  element  of  local  color  upon  which 
national  schools  are  now  based.  That  foundation  is  likely 
to  be  strengthened  by  the  clash  of  nations  which  shall  end 
in  the  liberation  of  peoples  from  political  yokes  and  the 
establishment  of  the  principle  of  self-government. 

The  libretto  of  "  Tiefland  "  can  not  be  said  to  "  yearn  " 
for  music  as  Wagner  insisted  that  the  book  of  a  lyric  drama 
should,  but  it  contains  elements  with  which  music  can  meet 
in  a  mutually  beneficial  union.  There  is  in  the  symbolism 
of  the  play  a  large  proclamation  of  virtue  on  the  heights 
and  vice  in  the  lowlands.  Verbal  preachments  of  this  kind 
are  more  likely  to  cause  amusement  than  to  awaken  reflec- 


THE  MUSIC  OF  "  TIEFLAND  "  47 

tion  or  stir  the  emotions;  but  for  symbolism  music  has  a 
language  which  the  orchestra  can  utter  potently.  Very  dif- 
ferent are  the  moods  represented  by  the  hut  of  the  shep- 
herd Pedro  and  the  mill  of  Sebastiano.  Mr.  d'Albert  seems 
to  have  realized  that  here  was  the  true  field  for  the  activity 
of  his  creative  fancy,  and  what  is  best  in  his  score  is  a 
reflection  of  the  two  moods.  The  music  begins  with  a 
ranz  des  vaches,  and  with  the  early  strains  which  are 
designed  to  depict  the  coming  of  dawn  are  discreetly 
mingled  the  sound  of  pasture  bells.  At  the  close  of  the 
prologue  there  comes  an  intermezzo  to  accompany  the 
change  of  scene  from  the  mountain  top  to  the  vale  below 
which  modulates  in  mood  and  melodic  theme  from  the  pas- 
toral and  peaceful  element  to  the  urban  and  tragic.  This 
is,  of  course,  instrumental  music,  and  it  is  only  what  the 
orchestra  utters  that  is  likely  to  interest  anybody  from  a 
musical  point  of  view.  The  vocal  part  of  the  score  is  nearly 
all  declamatory  chatter  floating  on  an  orchestral  current 
which  by  harmonic  and  instrumental  eddyings  and  whirlings 
seeks  to  comment  on  or  color  the  emotional  contents  of  the 
text  and  dramatic  situation.  It  is  the  parlando  of  the 
young  Italians,  but  with  less  melodic  flow.  Much  of  it  is 
delivered  rapidly  and  in  a  monotone.  Rapid  it  had  to  be, 
for  the  book  of  the  play  is  voluminous  enough  to  fill  an 
evening  if  it  were  spoken  instead  of  sung;  monotonic  it  had 
to  be,  because  there  is  little  in  the  text  that  admits  of 
melodic  contours.  Indeed,  the  most  persistent  question 
which  the  representation  forced  upon  my  mind  was  why 
music  had  been  introduced  into  it  at  all.  Save  when  it 
heightened  the  mood  and  in  the  climaxes  at  the  end  of  the 
first  act  and  beginning  of  the  second,  or  published  the  un- 
utterable feelings  which  surged  in  the  hearts  of  Marta  and 
Pedro  when  their  lips  were  dumb,  the  music  was  little  else 
than  an  impertinence.  One  thing  the  music  of  "  Tiefland  " 
may  be  said  to  do,  however:  to  some  extent  it  softens  the 
horror  of  the  play  and  lifts  into  relief  its  few  moments  of 


48  THE  ACTIVITIES  OF  igoS-'op 

cheer.  But  it  is  a  hundred  times  pitiful  that  the  son  of  a 
dancing-master  and  composer  of  dances  having  so  inviting 
a  field  before  him  as  Spanish  dances  and  Spanish  melodies 
open  could  not  get  farther  away  from  Viennese  common- 
place than  Mr.  d'Albert  did  in  the  music  associated  with  the 
three  women  gossips  of  the  play.  Miss  Destinn,  who  had 
effected  her  debut  on  the  American  stage  in  "  Aida  "  on 
the  opening  night  of  the  season,  played  the  role  of  Marta. 
In  pose,  gesture,  facial  expression,  and  poignancy  of  utter- 
ance she  recalled  memories  of  Duse  in  the  original  form 
and  Calve  in  the  operatic  version  of  "  Cavalleria  Rusticana." 
Praise  can  scarcely  go  farther  than  this. 

The  season  begun  on  November  16,  1908,  ended  on  April 
10,  1909,  and  a  summary  of  its  activities  may  be  found  in 
the  Appendix  to  this  volume.  The  plans  of  the  manage- 
ment to  augment  the  orchestra  and  chorus,  give  special  per- 
formances on  the  Tuesday  and  Saturday  nights,  reserve 
"  Parsifal  "  for  holidays,  and  substitute  benefits  for  a  pen- 
sion fund  for  the  old  personal  benefits  of  the  manager  were 
carried  out  practically  to  the  letter.  Of  the  eight  novelties 
announced,  however,  only  four  were  given,  viz.  Puccini's 
"  Le  Villi,"  Catalani's  "  La  Wally,"  Smetana's  "  Bartered 
Bride,"  and  d'Albert's  "  Tiefland."  A  promise  that  three 
operas  of  first-class  importance — Massenet's  "  Manon," 
Mozart's  "  Nozze  di  Figaro,"  and  Verdi's  "  Falstaff  "— 
would  be  revived  was  brilliantly  redeemed.  To  the  sub- 
scription season  of  twenty  weeks  one  week  was  added  for 
Wagner's  Nibelung  dramas  and  extra  performances  of 
"  Aida "  and  "  Madama  Butterfly."  Verdi's  Manzoni 
"  Requiem,"  having  been  sung  with  fine  effect  at  two  Sun- 
day night  concerts,  was  repeated  on  the  night  of  Good 
Friday  instead  of  an  opera.  The  performances  of  "  Par- 
sifal "  took  place  on  Thanksgiving  Day,  New  Year's  Day, 
and  the  birthdays  of  Lincoln  and  Washington.  There  were 
performances  also  for  the  benefit  of  the  French  Hospital, 
the  German  Press  Club,  the  Music  School  Settlement,  and 


BOHEMIANS  OBJECT  TO  THE  AUSTRIAN  ANTHEM    49 

the  Pension  and  Endowment  Fund.    At  the  last,  and  also 
at  a  special  performance  at  which  Mme.   Sembrich  bade 
farewell  to  the  operatic  stage  of  America,  the  programme 
was  made  up  of  excerpts  from  various  operas.     After  the 
season  was  over,  on  April  29,  there  was  a  special  per- 
formance of  "  The  Bartered  Bride  "  at  which  the  Legal 
Aid  Society  was  the  beneficiary.     This  occasion  takes  on 
an  interest  in  the  retrospect  because  of  the  refusal  of  a 
number  of  members  of  the  Bohemian  colony  in"  New  York, 
who  at  the  previous  performances  of  the  work  had  en- 
livened its  dances,  to  take  part  unless  the  project  of  singing 
the  Austrian  national  hymn,  which  had  been  foolishly  con- 
ceived by  the  president  of  the  society,  should  be  abandoned. 
The  local  Czechish  community  would  not  countenance  what 
it  righteously  considered  to  be  an  affront  to  their  love  of 
country  and  an  insult  to  a  characteristically  Czechish  opera 
of  which  they  were  proud.     At  a  late  hour  it  was  an- 
nounced that  "  The  Star-Spangled  Banner  "  and  Skroup's 
beautiful   "  Kde  domov  muj,"   a  true   national   utterance, 
would  be  substituted  for  "  Gott  erhalte  Franz  den  Kaiser," 
but  the  mischief  had  been  done,  the  anger  of  the  Bohemians 
refused  to  be  allayed,  and  Smetana's  opera  was  performed 
for  an  audience  that  only  half  filled  the  house.     It  was  the 
first  ebullition  of  a  patriotic  sentiment  which  nine  years 
later  compelled  the  banishment  of   the  German  language 
from  the  representations  at  the  opera  house.    The  German 
Press  Club,  which  for  many  years  had  given  an  annual 
benefit  performance,  did  not  venture  upon  the  experiment  in 
1917-18.    It  is  diverting,  at  least,  to  speculate  on  what  might 
have  been  the  consequences  had  it  done  so  and  attempted  to 
introduce  "  Deutschland,  Deutschland  iiber  Alles  "  between 
the  acts ! 

The  incidents  connected  with  the  retirement  of  Mmes. 
Sembrich  and  Eames  (from  opera,  not  from  the  concert- 
stage)  I  shall  reserve  for  description  after  recording  some 
impressions  made  by  the  new  operas  in  the  season's  list. 


50  PUCCINI'S  FIRST  OPERA  PERFORMED 

"  Le  Villi "  was  performed  on  December  17,  1908,  for  the 
first  time  in  America.  There  are  only  three  personages  in 
the  opera,  and  these  were  represented  by  Miss  Frances 
Alda,  who  on  April  3,  1910,  was  married  to  Mr.  Gatti, 
(Anna),  Signer  Bonci  (Roberto),  and  Signer  Amato 
(Guglielmo  Wolf).  Signor  Toscanini  conducted.  "  Le 
Villi  "  is  Signor  Puccini's  first  opera  and  was  composed 
while  he  was  yet  a  pupil  at  the  Milan  Conservatory  for  a 
competition  invited  by  the  publisher  Sonzognc.  "  ^  failed  to 
win  the  prize,  but  after  revision  was  performed  at  the 
Teatro  dal  Verme,  Milan,  on  May  31,  1884.  Why  it  should 
have  been  thought  worthy  of  production  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  was  a  mystery  in  1908  and  is  a  mystery  yet. 
The  circumstances  attending  its  performance,  especially  an 
increase  in  the  prices  of  admission  and  the  association  with 
it  in  the  list  of  "  La  Wally,"  both  works  being  long  dead  in 
Europe,  caused  Mr.  Gatti's  judgment  and  aims  to  be  viewed 
with  doubt  and  suspicion  and  the  ghosts  of  the  ghastly 
failures  have  arisen  to  plague  him  in  every  review  of  his 
administration  since.  The  subject  of  "  Le  Villi "  is  ad- 
mirably adapted  for  a  pantomimic  ballet,  as  Adolphe  Adam 
demonstrated  seventy  years  ago,  but  not  at  all  for  an  opera. 
A  drama  might  have  been  made  out  of  it  by  an  ingenious 
infusion  of  contributory  incident,  but  this  was  not  done  by 
Puccini's  librettist.  The  legend  has  a  place  in  European 
folklore.  It  tells  of  how  damsels  who  have  been  betrothed 
and  betrayed  and  died  of  a  broken  heart  sometimes  meet 
their  miscreant  lovers  at  midnight  and  indulge  in  a  strange 
penchant  for  dancing  which  had  been  checked  by  their  un- 
timely death.  They  lure  the  faithless  ones  into  a  whirl 
which  lasts  until  the  deceivers,  unable  to  stop,  give  up  the 
ghost. 

Signor  Puccini  has  reached  a  pinnacle  such  as  none  of 
his  contemporaries  has  attained  in  the  United  States. 
There  is  only  one  of  his  operas — the  second,  "  Edgar," 
which  died  early  and  has  never  been  resuscitated — that  has 


A  FAMILY  OF  COMPOSERS  51 

not  been  heard  in  New  York.  Aside  from  this  extraordi- 
nary popularity  there  are  historical  reasons  which  lend  a 
peculiar  interest  to  his  works.  He  is  an  interesting  example 
of  the  transmission  of  hereditary  gifts,  being  of  the  fifth 
generation  of  his  family  that  has  won  a  place  in  musical 
history.  Not  only  he,  Puccini  the  son,  but  Puccini  the 
father,  grandfather,  great-grandfather,  and  great-great- 
grandfather, are  known  to  the  annals  of  the  art  in  Italy. 
At  the  theatrical  exhibition  held  in  Vienna  in  1892  there 
were  performances  of  compositions  by  all  the  Puccinis  from 
Giacomo,  the  first  of  the  name  to  make  a  mark,  who  was 
born  in  1712,  down  to  the  present  Giacomo,  who  was  born 
in  1858.  It  is  a  right  noble  succession,  and  though  "  Le 
Villi  "  is  so  much  inferior  to  the  other  works  of  the  last 
of  the  line  that  I  could  wish  it  had  not  been  permitted  to 
interfere  with  my  appreciation  of  the  operas  which  fol- 
lowed it,  it  would  be  wrong  to  say  that  it  does  not  contain 
evidences  of  the  genius  which  was  finely  disclosed  in 
"  Manon  Lescaut "  and  went  lame  in  "  La  Fanciulla  del 
West."  The  best  proof  of  the  composer's  innate  capacity 
for  dramatic  expression  lies  in  the  music  of  the  ghostly 
dance. 

"  La  Wally "  had  its  first  American  performance  and 
(like  "  Le  Villi,"  save  a  few  other  representations  in  the 
season)  its  last  on  January  6,  1909.  Signer  Toscanini  con- 
ducted and  the  cast  was  as  follows : 

Wally   Miss  Destinn 

Afra   Miss  Ranzenberg 

Walter  Miss  1'Huillier 

Giuseppe  Hagenbach  Riccardo  Martin 

Vincenzo  Gellner  Pasquale  Amato 

Stromminger    Giulio   Rossi 

II  Padrone   Giuseppe  Campanari 

Had  Alfredo  Catalani  and  his  librettist,  Luigi  Illica, 
taken  as  the  keynote  of  their  drama  one  of  the  elements  to 
which  they  gave  merely  subordinate  emphasis,  "  La  Wally  " 


52         PRODUCTION  OF  CATALANI'S  "  LA  WALLY  " 

might  have  gained  a  greater  distinction  than  it  seemed  to 
possess  when  Mr.  Gatti  gave  it  place  in  his  scheme  of  per- 
formances. The  heroine  of  this  story  of  peasant  life  in 
the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  might  and  ought 
to  have  been  conceived  dominated  by  a  strain  of  romantic 
aloofness  tinged  with  mystery  and  fraught  with  charm. 
For  once  in  the  operatic  plots  of  modern  Italy  the  way  was 
open  to  cast  a  poetic  glamour  over  the  usual  tragedy  of  love 
and  jealousy.  But  the  librettist  was  content  simply  to  indi- 
cate his  element  without  developing  it  and  the  composer 
lagged  still  further  behind  in  what  might  have  added 
materially  to  the  opera's  chances  for  life.  The  German 
source  of  the  book  is  a  novel  by  the  Baroness  von  Hillern 
which  was  first  turned  into  a  German  play  and  then  into 
the  Italian  libretto  of  which  the  author  of  the  novel  thought 
so  well  that  she  made  the  translation  for  the  publishers  her- 
self. The  opera  had  its  first  performance  at  La  Scala  in 
January,  1892,  about  a  year  before  the  death  of  the  com- 
poser, whose  career  was  brief  and  disappointing.  It  has 
four  acts,  all  of  them  short.  Wally,  the  daughter  of  an  old 
hunter  in  the  Alps,  is  commanded  by  her  father  to  marry 
Gellner,  whom  she  does  not  love.  Hagenbach,  to  whom  she 
is  deeply  attached,  has  quarreled  with  her  father  and  does 
not  suspect  Wally's  feelings  toward  him.  He  unwittingly 
inflames  her  jealous  rage  and  at  the  same  time  discovers 
his  love  for  her.  Thinking  to  win  Wally,  Gellner  hurls  his 
rival  from  a  precipice,  but  Wally  rescues  him  and  there  is 
a  mutual  declaration  of  love.  The  pair  are  overtaken  by 
an  avalanche  high  up  in  the  Alps,  and  Hagenbach  perishes. 
Faithful  unto  death,  Wally  leaps  to  her  death  into  the 
abyss.  There  are  hints  early  in  the  play  that  Wally  is  a 
maid  consecrated  to  her  own  ideals  and,  in  a  sense,  an  in- 
carnation of  the  Edehveiss  whose  loveliness  is  celebrated  in 
a  song  sung  by  a  mountain  boy.  Here  is  good  poetic 
material,  but  this  aspect  of  her  character  is  lost  in  the  girl's 
petty  behavior  with  villagers  in  the  otherwise  ingeniously 


AN  APPRECIATION  OF  THE  COMPOSER  53 

contrived  festival  scene  of  the  second  act.  It  is  revived  in 
the  more  serious  moments  of  the  girl's  passive  share  in 
the  attempted  murder  of  her  lover  and  it  flowers  anew, 
though  feebly,  when  the  avalanche  sweeps  down  upon  the 
pair.  But  the  total  effect  of  the  drama  is  ultimately  that 
of  a  small,  trivial,  even  sordid  sequence  of  incidents  instead 
of  the  moving  tragedy  into  which  it  might  have  been 
elevated. 

The  melodramatic  novel  on  which  this  opera  was  built 
was  the  admiration  of  the  German  youth  in  the  latter  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  who  saw  in  Geierwally  (that  is 
the  original  name  of  the  heroine)  as  fascinating  a  creature 
as  their  elders  saw  in  Fanchon  the  Cricket,  a  child  born  of 
the  fancy  of  Charlotte  Birchpfeiffer,  who  was  Mme.  von 
Hillern's  mother.  There  is  real  beauty  in  some  of  the  songs, 
especially  that  of  Wally  at  the  close  of  the  first  act;  but 
less  loveliness  and  less  eloquent  in  the  essays  at  dramatic 
music.  Catalani,  with  undoubted  talent  of  a  high  order, 
was  a  lyricist,  not  a  dramatist.  The  story  calls  out  loudly 
for  local  color,  yet  there  is  not  an  Alpine  strain  in  it. 
Strange  this  and  explicable  only  on  the  ground  of  the  indif- 
ference of  Italian  composers  before  the  advent  of  the  ripe 
Puccini  and  Giordano  to  the  teachings  of  the  composers  of 
other  lands.  From  Bizet  Catalani,  who  was  his  contem- 
porary, ought  to  have  taken  a  hint  even  if  unwilling  to  note 
how  effectively  Auber  had  turned  Neapolitan  for  the  sake 
of  "  La  Muette  "  and  Weber  Spanish  for  the  sake  of  "  Pre- 
ciosa."  But  the  orchestration  of  "  La  Wally  "  is  delight- 
fully refined  and  the  prelude  to  the  third  act  is  a  gem. 

While  there  may  not  have  been  enough  intrinsic  value  in 
"  Le  Villi  "  and  "  La  Wally  "  to  justify  the  attempt  to  foist 
them  upon  the  people  of  New  York,  they  were  yet  interest- 
ing in  their  historical  aspects.  It  was  the  misfortune  of 
"  Le  Villi  "  to  have  been  composed  at  a  moment  when  the 
musical  taste  of  Italy  was  in  a  ferment.  The  so-called 
progressisti  had  cast  off  allegiance  to  Verdi  and  were  seek- 


54  WAGNER  AND  VER1SMO  IN  ITALY 

ing  to  enroll  themselves  under  the  banner  of  Wagner  with- 
out thinking  that  in  principle  and  method  there  was  an  in- 
superable barrier  between  their  artistic  natures  and  that  of 
the  German  master.  The  revolution  had  been  going  on  ever 
since  "  Lohengrin  "  had  its  first  presentation  in  Bologna  in 
1868,  but  nothing  came  of  it  until  Mascagni,  piecing  together 
shreds  and  patches  on  which  he  had  long  been  at  work, 
carried  off  the  Sonzogno  prize  with  "  Cavalleria  Rusticana." 
This  opera  set  a  fashion,  and  all  who  followed  it  found 
encouragement  with  its  publishers,  who  at  the  theatrical  ex- 
hibition in  1892  were  able  to  enter  no  less  than  four  new 
composers  with  operas  fashioned  in  a  general  way  after 
Mascagni's  nerve-rasping  little  work.  They  were  "  Pagli- 
acci  "  by  Leoncavallo,  "  II  Birichino "  by  Leopoldo  Mu- 
gnone,  "  Tilda  "  by  Cilea,  and  "  Mala  Vita  "  by  Giordano. 
As  it  had  been  the  misfortune  of  "  Le  Villi "  to  appear  be- 
fore the  new  spirit  had  been  awakened,  it  was  the  bad  fate 
of  Catalani  to  bring  out  his  "  La  Wally  "  when  critical  Italy 
had  just  been  carried  off  its  feet  by  the  new  movement. 
Catalani  belonged  to  the  Verdi  faction  if  there  is  any  value 
in  the  evidence  offered  by  the  music  'of  ""  La  Wally."  His 
previous  efforts  had  been  made  in  the  period  which  I  de- 
scribed as  follows  in  my  "  Chapters  of  Opera  "  ten  years 
ago:* 


Italy  had  become  sterile.  Verdi  seemed  to  have  ceased  writ- 
ing. There  were  whisperings  of  an  "  lago  "  written  in  collabora- 
tion with  Boito,  but  it  was  awaiting  ultmate  criticism  and  final 
polish,  while  the  wonderful  old  master  was  engaged  in  revamping 
some  of  his  early  works.  Boito  was  writing  essays  and  librettos 
for  others  with  the  unfinished  "  Nerone "  lying  in  his  desk  where 
it  is  still  hidden.  Ponchielli  had  not  succeeded  in  getting  a  hear- 
ing for  anything  since  "  La  Gioconda."  Expectations  had  been 
raised  touching  an  opera  "Dejanice"  by  Catalani,  but  I  can  not 
recall  that  it  ever  crossed  the  Italian  border.  The  hot-blooded 
young  veritists  who  were  soon  to  flood  Italy  with  their  creations  had 
not  yet  been  heard  of. 

*"  Chapters  of  Opera,"  page  114. 


VERDI  AND  CATALANI  55 

Verdi  cared  little  for  the  raging  of  the  youthful  elements 
about  him,  no  doubt  recognizing  something  like  chauvinism 
in  the  affected  indifference  of  his  countrymen  towards  "  La 
Forza  del  Destino  "  and  "  Don  Carlos,"  which  had  been 
composed  for  Paris,  and  "  A'ida,"  written  for  Cairo.  The 
true  lovers  of  the  Italian  style  knew  the  value  of  these 
works,  especially  "  A'ida,"  and  Verdi  and  the  Ricordis,  his 
publishers,  held  onto  their  following,  among  whom  was 
Catalani.  In  the  fullness  of  time  the  venerable  Italian 
master,  whose  growth  remains  an  amazing  phenomenon 
comparable  with  that  of  his  great  German  contemporary 
rival,  Wagner,  broke  his  silence  with  "  Otello  "  (1887)  and 
"  Falstaff  "  ( 1893) .  If  Verdi  represented  the  "  old  school  " 
there  was  no  danger  of  its  extinction  after  these  works, 
which  are  still  miles  in  advance  of  everything  produced  by 
his  successors.  Thus  it  may  be  said  that  Catalani  was 
justified  in  his  faith,  though  I  can  see  nothing  in  "  La 
Wally  "  that  is  not  compassed  by  "  Aida  "  and  "  Otello." 
"  Falstaff  "  was  as  plainly  beyond  his  horizon  as  it  was  of 
that  of  his  more  successful  rivals.  As  for  the  young  com- 
posers who  belonged  in  the  Ricordi  fold,  their  measure  was 
taken  in  a  general  way  when  at  the  opening  of  the  Metro- 
politan season  of  189091  Franchetti's  "  Asrael  "  made  its 
fiasco  and  the  policy  of  the  directors  of  the  establishment, 
in  trying  to  replace  the  Wagnerian  drama  with  "  Der  Vassal 
von  Szigeth  "  (an  Italo-Hungarian  opera  by  a  Dalmatian 
composer)  and  "  Diane  von  Solange  "  (an  opera  composed 
forty  years  before  by  a  royal  duke)  made  disastrous 
failures. 

Smetana's  "  Prodana  novesta "  had  its  first  American 
performance  in  German,  as  "  Die  verkaufte  Braut,"  on  Feb- 
ruary 19,  1909.  Gustav  Mahler  conducted  and  the  people 
of  the  play  were  these : 

Mary  Emmy  Destinn 

Kathinka  Marie  Mattfeld 

Agnes   Henrietta  Wakefield 


56        SMETANA'S  "  VERKAUFTE  BRAUT" 

Esmeralda  Mile.  1'Huillier 

Hans  Carl  Jorn 

Kruschina  Robert  Blass 

Kezul  Adamo  Didur 

Micha  Adolf  Miihlmann 

Wenzel  Albert  Reiss 

Springer   Mr.   Marlow 

Muff  Mr.  Bayer 

"  Die  verkaufte  Braut "  in  story  and  music  is  Czechish 
to  the  core  and  there  was  a  large  infusion  of  Czechish  blood 
in  the  performance.  Mr.  Mahler  was  a  Bohemian  and  so 
is  Miss  Destinn.  The  dances  are  Bohemian  folk-dances, 
and  to  give  the  true  folk  flavor  to  their  performance  the 
ballet  was  recruited  from  the  Bohemian  colony  of  New 
York.  The  spirit  of  the  performance  was  rollicking  and 
infectious.  These  were  some  of  the  good  round  dozen  of 
reasons  why  the  opera  made  an  unqualified  hit  at  its  first 
performance  and  held  its  popularity  in  the  rest  of  this  and 
two  subsequent  seasons.  One  of  the  reasons  lay  in  the 
charm  of  the  opera  itself,  which  is  a  masterpiece.  Another 
in  the  fascination  exerted  by  its  novel  local  color  in  scene 
and  music.  Still  another  in  the  satisfaction  which  it 
brought  to  a  long-cherished  curiosity  and  historical  interest, 
for  its  overture  had  for  years  been  an  admired  piece  of 
concert  music  and  the  story  of  its  unfortunate  composer 
was  well  known.  Another,  again,  in  the  relief  which  it 
brought  from  the  tragic  tone  which  had  prevailed  in  the 
repertories  of  both  opera  houses  since  the  beginning  of  the 
season.  Twenty-three  operas  had  been  brought  forward 
at  the  Metropolitan,  and  in  all  but  four  of  them  the  final 
curtain  had  closed  on  a  scene  of  wretchedness  and  death ; 
nineteen  had  been  seen  and  heard  at  the  Manhattan,  and 
in  only  three  of  them  had  the  audience  been  spared  pictures 
of  misery  and  dissolution,  moral  and  physical.  It  was  a 
refreshment  both  of  body  and  soul  to  turn  away  from  such 
a  sup  of  horrors. 

The  opera  is  one  in  which  the  spirit  of  Bohemian  peasant 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  OPERA          57 

life  finds  as  vital  expression  as  does  Russian  in  "  A  Life  for 
the  Czar."  Its  pictures  and  incidents  are  such  as  may  be 
found  in  any  Bohemian  village  today,  and  while  the  style 
of  the  music  is  a  direct  offshoot  of  the  classic  Italian  opera 
buffa  and  the  ingratiating  voice  of  Mozart  speaks  in  many 
of  its  pages,  its  most  pervasive  idiom  is  come  straight  from 
the  tongues  of  the  Czechish  peasantry,  just  as  the  char- 
acters, their  picturesque  garments  and  their  fascinating 
dances,  are  copies  from  everyday  life  as  it  exists  in 
Bohemia  today.  So  great  was  the  interest  in  the  produc- 
tion that  weeks  before  the  date  had  been  announced  $2,000 
was  sent  to  the  box-office  of  the  theater  by  Bohemian  citi- 
zens of  New  York  to  buy  seats  at  the  premiere. 

The  opera  is  strung  on  an  extremely  slender  thread  of 
probability.  The  lover  of  the  play  agrees  for  pay  to  re- 
nounce his  claim  upon  the  hand  of  the  maiden  who  loves 
him.  He  barters  his  bride.  But  the  written  contract  con- 
tains the  stipulation  that  she  shall  marry  no  one  but  "  the 
son  of  Micha."  There  is  a  son  of  Micha  for  whom  the 
marriage  broker  wishes  to  procure  the  pretty  maid  and 
her  pretty  ducats,  but  he  is  a  lout  who  stutters  in  his  speech 
and  is  obsessed  by  an  impediment  of  the  mind.  Though 
the  others  do  not  know  it  Hans,  the  hero  of  the  story,  is 
also  a  son  of  Micha — of  the  same  Micha,  indeed,  though 
he  is  doing  menial  service  in  the  house  of  the  pretty  Marie, 
having  departed  from  the  house  of  his  father  in  the  ad- 
joining village  when  that  father  provided  him  with  an 
unamiable  stepmother.  After  his  seemingly  heartless  con- 
duct had  made  Marie  tearful  and  then  so  angry  and  des- 
perate that  she  decides  to  sacrifice  her  love  and  marry  the 
"  son  of  Micha  "  out  of  spite,  Hans  discloses  his  identity 
and  claims  his  bride,  leaving  the  booby  who  was  an  un- 
willing rival  playing  the  part  of  a  trained  bear  in  a  travel- 
ing show  into  which  he  had  been  lured  by  the  wiles  of  a 
tight-rope  dancer.  That  is  all.  Dances  fill  the  gaping 
interstices  in  the  first  two  acts  of  the  play  and  a  farcical 


58  A  NOTE  ON  THE  COMPOSER'S  STYLE 

episode,  in  which  the  peripatetic  mountebanks  appear,  those 
of  the  third  act.  This  episode  is  quite  unworthy  of  the 
comedy,  but  the  dances  are  its  brightest  spots.  No  damsels 
with  gauze  skirts  these  dancers,  pirouetting  and  smirking, 
but  lusty  men  and  women  in  bodices  and  ample  skirts  of 
brilliant  colors  and  stout  shoes  which  come  down  upon  the 
floor  with  a  rhythmical  clatter  that  sets  one's  blood  to 
coursing  wildly.  The  polka  in  the  first  act  begins  with  a 
pretty  pantomime  and  ends  in  a  wild  whirl  with  waving 
kerchiefs  and  flying  skirts,  with  caps  thrown  into  the  air  and 
maidens  lifted  high  as  the  spectators  break  into  loud  huzzas 
at  the  end.  In  the  second  act  a  man  and  two  women  dance 
the  furiant,  a  measure  which  Dvorak  has  introduced  into 
the  polite  terminology  of  chamber  music. 

The  music  of  "  Die  verkaufte  Braut "  roots,  as  I  have 
intimated,  in  the  style  of  the  Italian  opera  buffa  and  fre- 
quently sounds  like  a  Mozartean  utterance.  This  reference 
I  intend  shall  go  to  the  forms  employed  and  also  to  the 
direct  tunefulness  of  the  score.  Much  of  the  dialogue 
which  was  originally  spoken  is  carried  on  in  recitative, 
which  is  frankly  old-fashioned  though  some  of  the  singers 
at  this  performance  sought  to  achieve  greater  naturalness 
of  effect  by  occasionally  dropping  into  the  speaking  voice. 
A  useless  proceeding.  It  is  better  to  keep  every  element  of 
the  lyric  drama  in  the  realm  of  ideality  which  is  its  home. 
But  the  old  forms  (I  mean  the  buffo  songs  solo  and 
ensemble)  of  the  Mozartean  period  and  the  perpetual  gush 
of  vocal  melody  sound  strange  in  the  work  of  a  composer 
who  was  a  devotee  of  Wagner  and  his  methods.  "  The 
Bartered  Bride  "  was  written  in  1866,  when  Smetana  must 
have  been  familiar  with  "  Tannhauser,"  "  Lohengrin,"  and 
"  Tristan."  Like  Bizet  he  had  to  endure  the  accusation  of 
being  a  Wagnerite  in  his  opera,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  a  score 
of  persons  of  the  thousands  who  listened  with  ingenuous 
delight  to  the  music  on  this  occasion  could  have  pointed  out 
anything  in  it  as  the  fruit  of  Wagnerian  suggestion. 


MME.  SEMBRICH'S  FAREWELL  TO  OPERA  59 

What  there  was  of  such  fruit  lay  in  the  flowing  flood  of 
instrumental  tune  which  buoyed  up  the  vocal  melody  and 
flashed  and  eddied,  and  threw  its  glittering  spray  above  and 
around  its  contours  most  caressingly  and  bewitchingly. 
This  is  the  kind  of  Wagnerism  which  may  be  found  also 
in  Verdi's  "  Falstaff,"  which  despite  its  modernity  also  con- 
sorts amicably  with  "  Le  Nozze  di  Figaro."  Mozartean 
also  is  the  score  in  its  characterization.  What  a  delightful 
note  of  nationalism  in  the  large  role  assigned  to  the  clarinet, 
which  may  not  ineptly  be  called  the  national  instrument 
of  the  Czechs;  what  a  delightful  humorist  is  Smetana's 
bassoon  in  the  scene  between  the  marriage  broker  and 
Hans !  What  vivacity  and  lustiness  are  in  the  music  as 
well  as  action  of  the  national  dances ! 

On  February  6,  1909,  Mme.  Marcella  Sembrich  said  fare- 
well to  the  operatic  stage  in  America  at  a  special  per- 
formance in  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  which  was 
made  the  occasion  of  an  ovation  the  like  of  which  I  believe 
has  no  parallel  in  operatic  history.  The  lady's  determination 
to  retire  from  opera  and  devote  her  gifts  to  the  concert- 
room  was  known  to  her  friends  before  the  season  opened 
and  announcement  of  the  fact  was  made  in  the  public  prints 
on  the  day  when  the  first  performance  took  place.  It  was 
in  no  way  connected  with  the  managerial  imbroglio  which 
I  have  described.  In  the  first  days  of  January  a  committee 
which  was  headed  by  Miss  Laura  J.  Post  as  chairman,  a 
large  number  of  music  lovers  representing  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  and  Real  Estate  Company,  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
Company,  musicians,  people  of  social  prominence,  and 
musical  critics,  addressed  an  invitation  to  the  public  to 
subscribe  to  a  fund  with  which  to  purchase  a  substantial 
gift  to  be  presented  to  her  in  appreciation  of  her  services 
during  the  twenty-five  years  in  which  she  had,  save  for  a 
few  interregnums,  been  identified  with  the  Metropolitan. 
In  this  invitation  were  the  words: 


6o  AN  UNEXAMPLED  POPULAR  TRIBUTE 

As  an  artist  Mme.  Serabrich  occupies  an  unusual  position.  By 
the  gifts  of  voice  and  rare  intelligence,  her  devotion  to  the  high- 
est ideals,  she  has  rendered  an  invaluable  service  to  music.  As  a 
woman  she  is  so  sincere  and  lovely  in  character  that  she  is  beloved 
by  all.  This,  therefore,  seems  a  proper  occasion  to  present  to  Mme. 
Sembrich  a  gift  that  shall  be  a  tribute  not  only  of  admiration  but 
of  love. 

The  farewell  ceremony  took  place  on  the  evening  of  the 
date  mentioned.  The  programme  of  the  entertainment  was 
printed  on  white  satin,  the  principal  artists  of  the  company 
appeared  in  a  mixed  bill  composed  of  a  scene  from.  "  Don 
Pasquale  "  (Mme.  Sembrich  and  Signer  Scotti),  the  second 
act  of  "  II  Barbiere "  (Mme.  Sembrich,  Signer  Bonci, 
Signer  Campanari,  and  Mr.  Didur),  and  the  first  act  of 
"La  Traviata "  (Mme.  Sembrich,  Miss  Farrar,  who  as- 
sumed the  small  role  of  Flora  to  honor  her  colleague,  Signer 
Caruso,  Signer  Scotti,  Mr.  Didur,  and  Signor  Amato.  The 
rest  of  the  company  graced  the  banquet  tables  in  Violetta's 
house  with  the  choristers.)  The  audience  was  the  most 
numerous  one  ever  gathered  into  the  house  since  police 
regulations  against  crowding  the  aisles,  to  which  official 
attention  had  been  grievously  called  by  the  burning  of  the 
Iroquois  Theater  in  Chicago,  had  come  to  be  enforced. 
After  the  scene  from  "  La  Traviata  "  the  curtain  was  closed 
for  a  short  space,  then  reopened  on  the  same  stage-set 
supplemented  by  a  canopied  throne  flanked  by  masses  of 
ferns  and  flowers.  All  the  members  of  the  company  were 
on  the  stage.  Signor  Gatti  led  Mme.  Sembrich  to  a  seat  on 
the  throne  and  yielded  his  place  to  Mr.  Dippel,  who  first 
read  a  letter  from  the  directors  of  the  company  owning  the 
building,  signed  by  Mr.  George  F.  Baker.  Then,  speaking 
for  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company,  Mr.  Dippel  presented 
its  gift,  a  massive  silver  punch-bowl  suitably  inscribed  and 
a  series  of  resolutions  setting  forth  an  appreciation  of  the 
singer's  services  and  electing  her  an  honorary  member  of 
the  company.  The  Hon.  Seth  Low,  once  mayor  of  the 
City  of  New  York,  presented  the  gifts  purchased  by  public 


GIFTS  TO  THE  SINGER  61 

subscription  consisting  of  a  pearl  necklace  and  a  watch  and 
chain  set  in  diamonds.  Extremely  gracious  and  beautiful 
were  Mr.  Low's  concluding  words : 


Friendships  such  as  you  have  created  between  an  artist  and  a 
community  are  not  easily  ended,  and  we  are  frankly  sorry  the  word 
of  farewell  must  be  spoken.  But  it  means  you  know,  fare  you 
well.  Fare  you  well  always  and  everywhere,  fare  you  well ;  and  let 
these  pearls  in  their  own  beauty  and  in  the  beauty  of  the  association 
through  which  they  shine  say  to  you  now  and  say  to  you  always : 
"  Think  not  so  much  of  the  gift  of  the  lovers  as  of  the  love  of  the 
givers  !  "  Fare  you  well ! 


The  orchestra,  through  one  of  its  members,  Adolf  Roth- 
meyer,  brought  to  Mme.  Sembrich  a  silver  loving-cup  as  a 
token  of  their  admiration,  esteem  and  gratitude,  an  act  that 
was  interpreted  as  a  recognition  of  the  singer's  generosity 
in  having  distributed  among  them  the  proceeds  of  a  concert 
which  she  had  given  the  receipts  from  which  went  to  the 
repair  of  the  losses  which  the  musicians  had  suffered  in 
the  San  Francisco  earthquake  in  April,  1906.  There  were 
also  personal  gifts  from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Dippel,  Miss  Farrar, 
Signer  Caruso,  and  Signer  Scotti,  and  then  Mme.  Sembrich 
took  her  turn  at  making  presents,  accompanying  each  of  the 
mementos  with  a  short  speech.  Among  the  recipients  were 
four  members  of  the  orchestra  who  had  played  at  the 
Metropolitan  ever  since  her  coming  in  1883.  She  also  ad- 
dressed the  audience,  saying: 


My  dear  friends : — I  have  said  "  Thank  you,  Thank  you,  Thank 
you !  "  but  these  words  do  not  help  my  heart.  It  grows  fuller  and 
fuller,  so  I  must  say  something  to  you,  else  I  shall  cry.  Now  I 
can  not  sing  my  feelings.  I  am  happy  because  you  have  been  so 
good  and  kind  to  me  during  the  many  years  I  have  sung  at  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House.  You  have  made  me  love  you  and  New 
York  lias  become  my  second  home.  I  go  away  happy  because  I 
shall  always  remember  your  goodness ;  but  I  go  away  sad  because 
I  shall  not  look  into  your  faces  again  over  these  footlights.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  goodness  and  kindness  of  the  people  who  have 
heard  me  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  and  I  hope  that  in  the 


62          MME.  SEMBRICH  HONORED  BY  MUSICIANS 

future  you  will  always  keep  a  place  in  your  hearts  and  your  memo- 
ries for  Marcella  Sembrich.  Once  more  I  thank  you  and  I  say,  not 
good-by,  but  au  revoir. 

After  the  function  at  the  opera  house  Mme.  Sembrich 
entertained  her  artistic  associates  and  a  large  company  of 
friends  in  the  ballroom  of  the  Hotel  Savoy  and  on  the  next 
evening  was  herself  entertained  at  a  banquet  arranged  by  a 
committee  of  musicians  at  the  Hotel  Astor.  Her  hosts 
numbered  over  150.  Mr.  Krehbiel  acted  as  master  of  cere- 
monies and  in  proposing  her  health  said : 


It  has  long  been  a  plaint  that  actors  and  reproductive  musicians 
in  dying  leave  only  a  memory  behind,  rising  first  like  a  cloud, 
roseate  and  fragrant,  but  gradually  wafted  away.  But  do  the  things 
which  make  for  refinement  die  when  they  pass  away?  I  should  be 
sorry  to  think  so.  Are  we  not  repositories  of  the  loves  that  lived 
in  our  ancestors  years  ago?  Surely,  and  it  is  because  of  this  that 
we  can  smile  as  we  say  farewell  to  Mme.  Sembrich — this  incar- 
nate melody,  this  vocal  sunbeam.  .  .  .  So  we  be  true  to  ourselves 
nothing  shall  take  from  us  the  reverence  for  lofty  ideals  of  beauty 
which  she  has  taught  us.  Nothing  shall  make  us  deaf  to  the  evangel 
of  truthfulness  and  loveliness  and  purity  in  art.  And  so  Marcella 
Sembrich  will  be  with  us  and  our  children  and  our  children's  chil- 
dren forever.  She  is  immortal.  She  was  not  made  to  die. 


Mr.  Paderewski  spoke  out  his  pride  in  the  fact  that 
Mme.  Sembrich  was  a  Pole,  a  countrywoman  of  his  own. 
and  declared  her  to  be  "  the  most  musical  singer  "  he  had 
ever  heard.  Mr.  Walter  Damrosch  paid  his  tribute  and  Mr. 
W.  J.  Henderson,  musical  critic  of  The  Sun,  his,  the  latter 
in  verse  which  is  worthy  of  preservation : 

Come,  all  ye  lovers  of  the  lyric  muse, 
Your  sackcloth  don  nor  yet  your  sighs  refuse. 
"Die  Frist  ist  um;"  the  iron  hand  of  Fate 
Engraves  across  the  years  the  cruel  date 
When  Music,  locked  within  her  silent  cell, 
Weeps  for  the  echo  of  her  olden  spell. 
The  clarion  trump  may  peal,  the  oboe  cry, 
The  sad  bassoon  lament,  the  clar'net  sigh, 


MR.  HENDERSON'S  POETICAL  TRIBUTE  63 

And  all  the  vibrant  choirs  of  strings  and  brass 

Sweep  dismal  dissonances,  dark  and  crass, 

While  Stentor  voices  from  the  trembling  stage 

In  crackling  recitation  shout  and  rage, 

And  stormy  passions  make  the  theater  ring 

With  waves  of  horrid  sound — but  who  will  sing? 

The  day  goes  down,  the  dusk  draws  slowly  near, 

For  old-time  art's  adieu  let  fall  a  tear. 

Let  all  the  cloisters  sob,  the  highways  grieve, 

For  great  Marcella  Sembrich  takes  her  leave ! 

No  more  shall  Gilda  hymn  the  dearest  name 

In  song  as  lambent  as  her  candle's  flame; 

No  more  shall  "  Una  voce  poco  fa  " 

Spell  R-o-s-i-n-a,  Rosina. 

That  Primavera  voce  dumb  shall  grow 

And  all  the  theater  droop  in  deepest  woe ! 

No  more  Norina  flouts  the  ancient  bore, 

Elvira  bid  Ernani  fly  no  more; 

No  more  Marie  shall  wake  the  martial  drum, 

Nor  fair   Ulana  to  the  lakeside  come ! 

No  more  shall  Marta  rustic  fates  dispose, 

Nor  praise  the  beauty  of  the  virgin  rose; 

But  we  shall  sing :  "  Ti  colgo  giovin  fior 

Sa  questo  cor'  cosi  morrai  d'amor." 

Susanna's  plots  no  more  shall  bring  delight 

Nor  Astnfiammante  rule  the  night. 

Zerlina  takes  from  Time  the  proffered  hand 

And  turns  her  back  forever  from  our  land, 

While   Violetta  comes,  of  all  the  last, 

To  sing  Addio  to  the  wondrous  past. 

And  shall  these  dear  ones  come  again  no  more 
To  glad  the  heart  and  make  the  tears  outpour? 
Must  silence  fall  across  the  lyric  stage 
While  memory  feeds  upon  a  bygone  age? 
Not  so;  for  new-fledged  birds  will  swiftly  wing 
Their  infant  flights  into  the  budding  spring, 
And  blithely  pipe  the  old-time  roundelays 
For  those  who  heard  them  not  in  other  days. 
But  not  for  us.     For  she  hath  struck  the  knell, 
To  her  creations  all  we  bid  farewell. 
To  younger  hearts,  to  younger  ears  and  eyes, 
With  other  voices,  thought  and  style  they'll  rise, 
And  they  shall  have  their  "  bravos  "  and  their  toasts, 
But  ah !  for  us  they'll  evermore  be  ghosts 
Summoned  to  walk,  with  vital  essence  fled, 
The  hollow  stage,  vain  shadows  of  the  dead. 


64  A  REHEARSED  IMPROMPTU 

So  like  our  salutation,  we  who  stay 
To  face  the  dawning  of  a  darker  day. 
Queen  of  the  Night,  Queen  of  the  singer's  art, 
Queen  of  the  stage,  Queen  of  the  public  heart, 
Hail  and  farewell !     Your  name  is  writ  above, 
Supreme  in  song,  still  more  supreme  in  love ! 

A  diverting  incident  of  the  dinner  which  caused  de- 
lighted comment  for  days  afterwards  and  quite  confounded 
the  newspaper  reporters  was  an  apparently  impromptu  song 
carried  on  sequentially  by  individuals  seated  in  various  parts 
of  the  room.  After  Mr.  Henderson  had  read  his  poem  the 
master  of  ceremonies  remarked :  "  A  wonderful  woman 
this !  Not  only  musical  herself,  she  is  the  cause  of  music 
in  critics !  I  wouldn't  wonder  if  there  were  a  song  even  in 
the  list  of  her  operas."  Taking  up  the  printed  menu  whose 
title-page  contained  the  representation  of  a  laurel  wreath 
bound  with  a  ribbon  on  the  convolutions  of  which  appeared 
the  names  of  twenty-seven  operas  in  which  Mme.  Sembrich 
had  sung,  he  looked  it  over.  Mr.  Isidore  Luckstone,  who 
had  frequently  been  the  singer's  accompanist  at  her  song 
recitals,  struck  a  chord  on  a  pianoforte  in  an  anteroom  and 
Mr.  Krehbiel  sang  "  Rigoletto  "  to  the  first  motif  of  the 
waltz  from  "  The  Merry  Widow,"  the  most  popular  operetta 
of  the  day.  As  if  catching  the  inspiration  Mme.  Homer, 
Emilio  de  Gogorza,  Mrs.  Krehbiel,  Mr.  Dippel,  Mrs.  Theo- 
dore J.  Toedt,  Signer  Caruso,  Miss  Farrar,  Signer  Scotti, 
Frank  Damrosch,  and  Walter  Damrosch  followed,  each  in 
turn  carrying  on  the  tune  with  opera  titles  as  texts.  The 
last  motif  was  sung  in  harmony  by  Miss  Farrar,  Mrs. 
Homer,  Mr.  Dippel,  and  Mr.  de  Gogorza.  As  the  song  went 
on  amazement  and  delight  grew,  and  at  the  end  there  was 
an  uproarious  demand  for  more.  The  toastmaster  began 
again,  but  with  a  new  list,  and  when  the  round  of  singers 
had  been  completed  the  versified  repertory  had  this  form: 


A  REPERTORY  SET  TO  MUSIC 

The  Sembrich  Repertory  Waltz 


65 


* 


Ri- go  -  let- to,    Pu-ri-ta-ni,     Hu  -  gue  -   nots,_ 
II   Bar-bie-re,    La  Lu  -  ci  -  a,      La      Bo  -    heme, 


-H  ' 

&    J      '  r  4= 

J  •  '  r  i  : 

i  r  i 

1  r  '  r  ' 

Don  Pa-  squa-le,  Tra-vi  -    a  -  ta,      Am  -    le    -     to. 

Pa-gli-    ac  -  ci,   Mei-ster-  sin-ger,    (not       the        same),_ 


IT  i  *  IT  r  r  i  r  r  i  r  '  f  ' 


L'E-li-  sir    d'A  -  mo'-    re,      La      Son-nam-bu  -  la, 

Ro-bert     le     Di  -    a  -    ble,   Lin-da  di    Cha-mou  -  nix, 


iM 

_p  

1  1  J  r  . 

F=ff= 

M^ 

^HN 

Don   •  Gio  -  van-  -    ni,  Mar-ta,   Lak-me,     Ro  -    me    -     o. 
Lu-sti-gen  Wei-bervon     Wind  -    sor,        Faust,  Man  -    ru. 

Sung  at  the  Sembrich  banquet,  February  7, 1909. 
(Melody  copyrighted  by  Chappell  and  Co.  Used  by  permission  of  Q.  Schirmer) 

Mme.  Sembrich's  repertory  had  not  been  exhausted,  but 
the  remaining  titles  refused  the  strait-jacket  of  versifica- 
tion and  were  not  numerous  enough  to  fill  out  a  third  stanza. 
Circumstances  conspired  to  make  the  joke  sound  like  an 
improvization,  and  it  is  almost  a  pity  even  now  to  divulge 
the  fact  that  the  singers  had  been  coached  in  their  parts, 
albeit  in  a  great  hurry,  within  a  few  minutes  while  the 
company  was  gathering. 


66  RETIREMENT  OF  MME.  EAMES 

Thus  departed  from  the  operatic  stage  of  America  one 
of  the  greatest  stars  that  ever  illumined  it.  Mme.  Sembrich 
appeared  in  opera  in  a  few  European  cities  during  the  next 
season  and  continued  to  give  song  recitals  in  the  United 
States  until  the  beginning  of  1917,  when  persistent  illness 
compelled  her  retirement  from  the  concert-field  also — a  cir- 
cumstance which  was  as  deeply  deplored  as  her  abandon- 
ment of  the  operatic  stage  had  been.* 

Though  there  had  been  no  authoritative  announcement 
of  the  fact  till  it  was  made  by  the  lady  herself  from  the 
stage  of  the  Metropolitan  on  February  15,  1909,  Mme. 
Emma  Eames's  friends  knew  that  she  would  retire  from 
opera  at  the  end  of  the  work  in  which  she  was  then  singing. 
The  opera  was  "  Tosca,"  and  after  the  second  act,  in  re- 
sponse to  a  hearty  demonstration  by  the  audience,  she 
announced  her  purpose  in  a  formal  speech  of  farewell, 
gracefully  worded  and  listened  to  with  rue.  Mme.  Eames's 
connection  with  the  Metropolitan  establishment  began  with 
the  restoration  of  the  Italian  regime  under  Abbey,  Schoef- 
fel,  and  Grau  in  the  winter  of  1891.  She  effected  her  debut 
on  December  14,  the  opening  night,  in  Gounod's  "  Romeo 
et  Juliette."  It  was  an  auspicious  introduction  for  the 
young  American.  She  was  only  twenty-four  years  old,  and 
there  was  much  to  laud  in  her  art  and  nothing  to  condone 
except  its  immaturity.  Her  endowment  of  beauty  of  per- 
son as  well  as  voice  was  opulent.  She  appeared  in  the 
opera  in  which  she  had  made  her  entrance  on  the  lyric  stage 
at  the  Grand  Opera,  Paris,  less  than  three  years  before  and 
for  which  her  gifts  and  graces  admirably  fitted  her.  She 
appeared,  moreover,  in  the  company  of  M.  Jean  de  Reszke, 
who  was  then,  and  who  remained  until  his  retirement  the 
ideal  Romeo  in  all  things  except  mere  sensuous  charm  of 
voice.  She  came  fresh  from  her  first  successes  at  Covent 

*  For  incidents  in  the  life  of  Mme.  Sembrich  and  an  account  of 
her  career,  see  "Chapters  of  Opera."  New  York:  Henry  Holt  and 
Company.  Pp.  94  et  seq. 


EMMA  EAMES 
As  Juliet 


THE  AMERICAN  SINGER'S  CAREER  67 

Garden,  London,  which  had  been  made  in  the  spring  of  the 
year  and  disclosed  at  once  the  lovely  qualities  which,  when 
they  became  riper,  promised  the  highest  order  of  achieve- 
ment in  dramatic  song.    She  had  not  realized  all  the  prom- 
ises of  her  early  years,  but  she  had  written  her  name  on  the 
scroll  of  fame  and  been  a  delight  to  the  patrons  of  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House  for  a  dozen  years.     She  estab- 
lished herself  so  firmly  in  popular  favor  that  when  Mme. 
Melba  came  in  1893-94  she  found  it  extremely  difficult  to 
win  appreciation  for  her  voice  and  art.    The  difference  be- 
tween the  repertories  of  the  two  singers  had  much  to  do 
with  their  relative  popularity.    Mme.  Eames's  list  of  operas 
was  small,  but  it  appealed  more  strongly  to  the  public  which 
had  been  under  German  training  for  seven  years  than  did 
the  barrel-organ  list  of  Mme.  Melba.     In  her  first  season 
Mme.    Eames    sang    in    "  Romeo    et    Juliette,"    "  Faust," 
"  Cavalleria  Rusticana,"  and  "  Lohengrin."     In  the  season 
1893-94,    when    Melba    and    Calve    were    first    associated 
with   her,   she   added    "Carmen"    (Micaela),    Massenet's 
"Werther,"  "Die  Meistersinger "    (in  Italian),  and  "  Le 
Nozze  di  Figaro"  (the  Countess)  to  her  list.    In  this  year 
"  Faust,"  with  its  "  ideal  cast "  which  she  headed,  was  the 
only   opera   which   held   a   candle   to    Calve's    "  Carmen." 
Again  a  member  of  the  company  of  1894-95,  sne  appeared 
as  Desdemona  in  Verdi's  "  Otello  "  on  December  3,  Mistress 
Ford  in  the  same  composer's  "  Falstaff  "  on  February  4, 
and  Elvira  in  "Don  Giovanni"  on  December  31.     Absent 
in  1895-96  she  returned  in  1896-97  and  disclosed  further 
fruits  of  study  by  singing  Elizabeth  in  "  Tannhauser,"  on 
November  22,   1896,  and  Elsa  in  "Lohengrin"   (in  Ger- 
man)   on   January    7,    1897.      The   reaction    against    Mr. 
Abbey's  Italian  policy  had  set  in,  and  Mr.  Grau  had  begun 
a    restoration    of    the    German    repertory    in   the   original 
tongue.     It  was  thus  that  Mme.  Eames  was  encouraged  to 
widen  her  artistic  horizon  and  in  subsequent  years  she  sang 
in  German  performances  of  "  Tannhauser,"  "  Lohengrin," 


68  SIGNOR  CARUSO  FALLS  ILL 

"  Die  Meistersinger,"  and  "  Die  Walkiire."  Her  debut  as 
Sieglinde  in  the  last  opera  was  made  on  December  14,  1898, 
and  as  Eva  in  the  German  "  Meistersinger  "  on  January  24, 
1900.  Other  notable  first  performances  were  Ero  in  Man- 
cinelli's  "  Ero  e  Leandro  "  on  March  10,  1899 ;  Aida  on 
January  3,  1900;  Pamina  in  the  Italian  "  Zauberflote  "  on 
March  30,  1900;  Tosca,  December  12,  1902;  Iris  (in  Mas- 
cagni's  opera),  December  6,  1907;  Donna  Anna  in  "Don 
Giovanni,"  January  23,  1908.  During  her  connection  with 
the  opera  house  she  sang  in  nineteen  operas. 

A  distressing  incident  of  the  season  was  the  vocal  ship- 
wreck suffered  by  Signer  Caruso  in  the  first  week  of  March, 
after  which  he  was  unable  to  sing  because  of  an  affection  of 
his  vocal  organs.  At  the  last  matinee  of  the  subscription 
season  and  again  on  the  following  Wednesday  he  made  ill- 
advised  efforts  to  resume  his  duties,  but  the  consequences 
were  pitiful  to  all  connoisseurs  and  seemed  so  threatening 
to  his  physicians  that  it  was  deemed  advisable  by  the  man- 
agement to  relieve  him  of  his  obligation  to  go  on  the 
Western  tour  undertaken  by  the  company  on  the  conclusion 
of  the  New  York  season. 


CHAPTER  IV 

RIVALRY  BETWEEN  THE  MANATTAN  AND 
METROPOLITAN  OPERA  HOUSES 

AN  OPERA-MAD  CITY— OVER  TWO  MILLION'S  OF  DOLLARS  SPENT 
ON  THE  ENTERTAINMENT  IN  TEN  MONTHS— MR.  HAMMER- 
STEIN'S  POLICIES— THE  MASSES  AGAINST  THE  ARISTOCRATS 
—THE  LURE  OF  FRENCH  OPERA— A  HOUSE  BUILT  IN  PHILA- 
DELPHIA—THE CLASH  OF  OPPOSITION  THERE— HAMMER- 
STEIN  CONFESSES  FAILURE— PURCHASE  OF  HIS  INTERESTS 
AMD  PROPERTIES— AGREES  TO  RETIRE  FROM  OPERA  FOR  TEN 
YEARS— REORGANIZATIONS  AND  AFFILIATIONS— HAMMER- 
STEIN  TRIES  LONDON— FAILURE  THERE— ATTEMPTS  TO 
ENTER  THE  FIELD  IN  NEW  YORK— BUILDS  A  THEATER  IN 
LEXINGTON  AVENUE— OPERA  IN  ENGLISH— PROJECT  OF  THE 
CITY  CLUB— HAMMERSTEIN  ANNOUNCES  HIS  INTENTION  TO 
EVADE  HIS  CONTRACT— IS  ENJOINED  BY  THE  COURTS— MR. 
STOTESBURY  AND  HIS  LOANS— DEATH  OF  MR.  HAMMERSTEIN. 

THE  two  seasons  which  fell  between  the  winter  of  1909 
and  the  summer  of  1911  were  years  of  operatic  marvels  in 
New  York,  though  they  were  more  marvelous  for  their 
plethora  of  incident,  scandalous  and  otherwise,  than  for 
artistic  achievement.  Within  three  hundred  days  of  this 
period  the  city  was  entertained  with  nearly  600  representa- 
tions of  opera,  omitting  from  the  count  the  bastard  spawn 
of  the  theaters  called  comic  opera.  Within  300  days  New 
York  spent  considerably  over  $2,000,000  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  a  craze  for  opera  stimulated  by  the  rivalry  between 
the  Metropolitan  and  Manhattan  Opera  Houses.  The  end 
of  the  period  was  marked  by  the  collapse  of  Mr.  Oscar 
Hammerstein's  career  as  an  operatic  manager,  though  all 
the  wind  was  not  taken  out  of  his  balloon  until  pressure 
was  applied  to  it  three  years  later  by  the  law-courts.  The 
mania  was  not  confined  to  the  managements  and  public ;  it 
was  shared  in  also  by  the  newspapers.  Throughout  the 

69 


70  HAMMERSTEIN  AND  THE  NEWSPAPERS 

ferment  which  kept  the  redoubtable  rival  of  the  Metro- 
politan Company  bobbing  and  whirling  on  the  surface  of  the 
bubbling  and  boiling,  toiling  and  troubling  social  cauldron 
the  editors  were  Mr.  Hammerstein's  willing  and  active 
agents.  He  was  a  fecund  source  of  "  news."  Hi:  audacity, 
intrepidity,  inexhaustible  energy,  and  good  humor  WOK  their 
admiration.  They  knew  him  only  as  he  appeared  in  the 
interviews,  statements,  pronouncements,  and  proclamations 
which  the  reporters  brought  into  their  offices.  He  was 
"  good  copy  "  while  the  fight  was  on,  good  copy  during  the 
brief  space  in  which  he  troubled  the  operatic  pools  of 
London,  and  still  good  copy  when  after  his  return  to  New 
York  he  attempted  to  establish  a  new  rivalry  with  the 
Metropolitan  Company  in  defiance  of  a  solemn  covenant  to 
keep  out  of  the  American  operatic  field  for  ten  years.  He 
became  almost  a  political  factor,  for  it  was  the  period  of 
the  proletarian  war  on  combined  industries  the  wisdom  of 
which  is  also  undergoing  purgation  in  the  war  crucible.  His 
campaign  of  publicity  was  so  ingeniously  conducted  by  him- 
self and  his  press  agent,  William  A.  Guard,  that  the  editors 
were  urgent  in  their  invitations  to  the  public  to  share  their 
admiration  and  only  the  irresistible  logic  of  money  turned 
the  scales  against  him.  He  fell;  but  even  in  his  fall  I  am 
persuaded  he  triumphed  over  his  rivals  when  he  sold  them 
his  Philadelphia  theater  and  all  his  operatic  properties  for 
a  sum  which  enabled  him  to  pay  his  obligations  in  America 
and  embark  upon  another  quixotic  enterprise  in  London. 
He  escaped  the  financial  ruin  which  inevitably  confronted 
him — an  achievement  which,  though  it  excites  no  admiration 
in  so  hopelessly  uncommercial  a  person  as  myself,  can  not 
be  said  to  reflect  credit  on  the  combination  of  astute  business 
men  whom  he  fought  single-handed. 

The  rivalry  which  ended  in  the  circumstances  which  I 
have  hinted  at  and  must  now  relate  began  in  December, 
1906,  when  Mr.  Hammerstein  opened  the  Manhattan  Opera 
House,  which  he  had  built  in  West  Thirty-fourth  Street. 


BATTLE  OF  THE  OPERA  HOUSES  71 

The  enterprise,  no  less  chimerical  at  the  height  of  its  suc- 
cess than  when  it  came  to  an  end,  was  a  flowering  of  the 
old  obsession  that  if  one  operatic  establishment  flourishes  in 
a  community  there  must  be  room  for  two.  Managerial  flesh 
is  Bourbonistic.  It  never  learns.  Upon  it  history  and  in- 
dividual experience  are  wasted.  The  theories  upon  which 
Mr.  Hammerstein  based  his  hopes  of  success  were  chiefly 
two,  and  neither  of  them  was  in  his  mind  when  he  built 
the  Manhattan  Opera  House,  which  was  originally  designed 
as  the  home  of  spectacle  and  vaudeville.  The  first  theory 
was  based  on  a  belief  in  proletarianism  of  a  sort,  a  con- 
viction or  notion  that  he  could  win  the  masses  to  the  sup- 
port of  an  institution  consecrated  to  the  classes :  democracy 
against  aristocracy  in  art.  Unlike  a  multitude  of  managers 
before  and  after  him  he  did  not  confound  popular  opera 
with  cheap  opera.  He  had  learned  better  in  theaters  of  his 
own  building  in  earlier  years.  He  knew  that  the  popular 
interest  in  opera  of  which  the  newspapers  talked  much  was 
largely  an  affectation,  and  that  aristocratic  prices  would 
help  him  more  than  they  would  mar  him.  Not  "  good 
enough "  opera,  but  opera  as  good  as  the  best  was  his 
promise.  He  made  no  pretense  of  scorning  the  help  of 
what  calls  itself  society;  he  needed  it  to  fill  the  many  boxes 
which  the  architect  had  put  in  his  vast  audience-room.  He 
needed  it  to  meet  his  payroll.  So  he  engaged  as  many  high- 
class  singers  as  he  could  find  and  boldly  challenged  his 
rivals  on  social  as  well  as  artistic  lines. 

The  second  factor  in  his  appeal,  largely  adventitious  in 
origin  (growing  as  it  did  out  of  the  character  of  his 
singers),  was  French  opera.  This  did  not  enter  into  his 
plans  until  his  second  season,  though  thereafter  it  became 
the  dominant  principle  of  his  administration.  It  was  a 
splendid  weapon,  and  with  it  he  dealt  the  blows  which  his 
adversaries  could  not  withstand.  It  was  a  two-edged 
sword  which  cut  a  swath  in  every  direction.  With  it  he 
enlarged  the  outlook  of  the  society-folk  in  respect  of 


72  FRENCH  OPERA  VERSUS  ITALIAN 

operatic  literature.  With  it  he  humored  the  poseurs  who 
affected  to  believe  that  an  entertainment  had  been  created 
for  their  special  delectation.  Among  the  patrons  of  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House  there  were  many  who  saw  in  it 
an  indictment  of  Mr.  Gatti,  who  had  always  protested  that 
he  could  not  find  capable  French  singers,  thereby  increasing 
the  apprehension  that  the  Metropolitan  opera  was  to  be 
completely  Italianized.  Mr.  Hammerstein  adroitly  fed  this 
apprehension  by  proclaiming  a  purpose  to  make  his  reper- 
tory and  performances  as  polyglot  as  Mr.  Grau's  had  been. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  success  of  French  opera  at 
the  Manhattan  was  the  most  potent  of  the  influences  which 
frightened  the  Metropolitan  people  into  the  belief  that  their 
establishment  was  in  danger  of  losing  prestige,  socially  as 
well  as  artistically.  If  the  society-folk  enjoyed  French 
opera  more  than  Italian  (the  music  being  equally  enjoyable 
and  the  performance  good),  there  was  a  likely  reason  for 
the  fact.  They  understood  more  of  the  words.  Sometimes, 
it  must  be  confessed,  the  enjoyment  was  of  a  most  in- 
genuous kind.  Once  on  a  French  night  in  the  days  of  Grau 
when  walking  in  the  lobby  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House 
I  overheard  the  chatter  of  some  young  women  who  had  just 
emerged  from  one  of  the  boxes. 

"  Oh !  "  exclaimed  one  of  them,  "  I  do  love  French  so 
much  more  than  Italian!  Did  you  hear  Jean  say 
'jamais'?" 

Had  M.  de  Reszke  said  "giammai,"  in  opera  as  blessed 
a  word  and  mouth-filling  as  Mesopotamia,  it  would  not  have 
fallen  so  delightfully  into  the  ear  of  the  rapturous  maiden 
who  had  understood  an  adverb  from  the  lips  of  the  artist 
whom  she  and  her  tribe  were  wont  to  speak  of  by  his  Chris- 
tian name.  Did  we  not  read  about  the  same  time  of  a 
young  person  borne  out  of  the  Auditorium  in  Chicago 
shrieking :  "  I  want  Jeen !  I  want  Jeen !  "  She  had  become 
hysterical  because  there  had  been  a  change  in  the  Dill,  and 
her  adored  Jean  was  not  in  the  cast ! 


PHILADELPHIA  AS  A  MUSICAL  CENTER  73 

The  repertory  of  Mr.  Hammerstein's  first  season  did  not 
contain  a  single  novelty.  Moreover,  Italian  opera  domi- 
nated it  and  the  language  used  was  Italian.  For  the  next 
season  he  engaged  some  singers  from  Paris  and  hit  upon 
the  notion  of  specializing  in  French  opera.  His  second 
prospectus  announced  eight  novelties,  all  of  them  French 
but  one.  Of  the  eight  promised  he  produced  four  and  he 
gave  two  other  French  works  in  place  of  the  three  which 
he  omitted.  With  this  list  he  challenged  popularity  and  sup- 
port. He  fomented  criticism  of  the  subscription  methods 
of  the  Metropolitan  management,  which  were  said  to  pre- 
vent thousands  from  enjoying  the  entertainment  for  which 
their  souls  hungered,  and  his  daring  campaign,  warmly 
supported  by  the  newspapers,  won  a  surprising  success. 
Almost  we  were  persuaded  to  believe  that  there  really  were 
enough  people  in  New  York  to  support  two  opera  houses. 
But  the  stomach  of  Mr.  Hammerstein's  ambition  had  grown 
large  by  his  contemplation  of  the  vast  scheme  of  conquest 
in  the  minds  of  the  Metropolitan  directors.  They  were 
reaching  out  for  domination  of  the  national  field ;  he  would 
do  likewise.  The  point  of  departure  for  the  new  campaign, 
New  York  being  invested,  was  Philadelphia. 

Time  was,  before  it  became  the  national  seat  of  govern- 
ment (i.e.  after  1790),  when  Philadelphia  outranked  New 
York  as  a  musical  center.  For  a  long  time  afterward  it 
disputed  for  first  place  with  New  York.  The  first  dramatic 
companies  which  came  to  the  American  shores  from  London 
played  there  as  well  as  in  Charleston,  S.  C.,  and  Williams- 
burg,  Va.,  which  towns  loomed  as  large  on  the  dramatic 
map  then  as  did  the  present  metropolis  of  the  nation. 
From  the  early  days  until  the  nineteenth  century  Phila- 
delphia was  a  more  influential  city,  musically,  than  New 
York,  and  there  was  an  energetic  rivalry  between  the 
dramatic  companies  playing  in  the  two  places.  During  the 
last  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century  Philadelphia  laid 
more  stress  upon  opera  (of  the  type  prevalent  at  the  time, 


74         HAMMERSTEIN'S  PHILADELPHIA  THEATER 

English  ballad  and  adaptations  by  English  composers  of  a 
few  Continental  works)  than  New  York.  At  the  time  of 
the  advent  of  Italian  opera,  in  1825,  New  York  had  twice 
the  population  of  Philadelphia,  incomparably  greater 
wealth,  and  a  much  more  cosmopolitan  character.  There- 
after the  city  of  Penn  became  largely  dependent  on  the 
city  of  Knickerbocker  for  operatic  entertainment.  Like  its 
predecessors  the  Metropolitan  Company  gave  performances 
twice  a  week  for  a  brief  season  in  the  Academy  of  Music 
in  Philadelphia,  which  had  long  been  the  fashionable  home 
of  music  in  that  city.  Determined  to  carry  the  war  into 
that  city  Hammerstein  built  an  opera  house  there  in  1908 
at  Broad,  Carlisle,  and  Poplar  streets,  appealed  for  subscrip- 
tions to  a  season  of  opera,  and,  as  if  to  make  his  challenge 
more  emphatic,  gave  his  opening  performance  one  week 
after  he  had  begun  his  New  York  season  on  the  regular 
first  night  of  the  Metropolitan  Company  at  the  Academy  of 
Music.  Philadelphia  seemed  so  wonderfully  flattered  at  the 
prospect  of  having  an  opera  all  its  own  that  its  society 
broke  down  the  barrier  which  had  shut  fashion  within  the 
confines  of  a  district  contiguous  to  Rittenhouse  Square  and 
subscribed  for  seats  and  boxes  with  a  generosity  which  was 
remarkable  if  not  of  the  dimensions  trumpeted  forth  by 
Mr.  Hammerstein.  Scarcely  had  the  walls  of  the  building 
been  reared  before  Mr.  Hammerstein  asked  the  moneyed 
men  of  Philadelphia  to  lend  him  $400,000  on  the  security 
of  a  mortgage  on  the  opera  house.  A  committee  of  citizens 
undertook  to  raise  the  amount,  but  financiers  were  chary, 
for  which  reason  Mr.  Hammerstein  publicly  and  roundly 
berated  them.  With  amazing  effrontery  he  accused  them  of 
niggardliness  and  said  that  if  he  had  built  a  drinking  saloon 
and  asked  a  loan  on  it  they  would  readily  have  given  him 
$4,000,000.  With  a  meekness  equally  amazing  the  Phila- 
delphians  swallowed  the  insult  to  their  city.  The  public, 
led  as  in  New  York  by  the  newspapers,  had  as  a  matter 
of  fact  become  enamored  of  their  new  social  plaything  and 


A  PREVISION  OF  DISASTER  75 

were  in  the  frame  of  mind  to  be  browbeaten  and  intimi- 
dated. The  committee  offered  Mr.  Hammerstein  $250,000 
on  conditions  which  he  refused  and  played  his  next  card: 
he  would  close  the  season  on  January  23  or  continue  to  give 
opera  on  a  less  costly  scale.  At  the  same  time  he  gave  the 
public  to  understand  -that  Baltimore  had  offered  to  raise 
$1,000,000  and  build  an  opera  house  for  him.  Baltimore 
had  been  drawn  into  the  fighting-line  and  Mr.  Hammer- 
stein's  hint  was  merely  a  prelude  to  the  announcement 
made  by  the  Metropolitan  people  on  January  21  that  they 
had  acquired  the  Lyric  Theater  in  that  city  and  would  give 
a  season  of  two  performances  a  week  in  1909-10.  Never- 
theless Mr.  Hammerstein  got  his  $400,000,  the  loan  being 
guaranteed  or  extended  on  his  own  responsibility,  by  Mr. 
E.  T.  Stotesbury,  a  member  of  the  banking  house  of  Drexel 
and  Morgan. 

And  so  the  season  of  1908-09  wore  on  to  an  end  and  the 
season  1909-10  began  with  Hammerstein  striving  to 
strengthen  his  intrenchments  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
and  the  Metropolitan  directors  doing  the  same  but  also 
working  on  the  plan,  long  in  their  minds,  of  gaining  control 
of  the  operatic  field  in  the  entire  country.  Meanwhile  the 
competition  for  singers  caused  them  to  raise  their  demands 
for  honoraria  and  the  cost  of  giving  opera  was  growing. 
Mr.  Hammerstein,  at  least,  saw  disaster  threatening. 
Though  he  could  boast  that  he  had  no  board  of  directors 
to  hamper  his  actions  he  was  obliged  to  confess  there  was  a 
strength  which  he  did  not  possess  in  the  wealth  of  the 
Metropolitan  Company  and  its  annual  popular  subscription 
list  which  was  more  than  a  royal  subvention. 

Before  the  year  1910  opened  he  was  prepared  to  con- 
fess to  a  vision  of  the  handwriting  on  the  wall.  On  New 
Year's  Day  he  gave  out  an  interview  in  the  newspapers  in 
which  he  said  that  the  operatic  war  was  suicidal  and  offered 
to  combine  with  the  Metropolitan  Company  with  a  view  to 
reducing  the  number  of  performances.  Still  protesting  that 


76  A  MERGER  PROPOSED  AND  DECLINED 

his  purpose  in  giving  opera  had  no  desire  for  money  gain 
in  it,  he  said :  "  It  is  at  present  a  throat-cutting  game. 
Operas  are  pitched  on  solely  to  get  ahead  of  the  rival 
house,  and  singers  are  engaged  at  exorbitant  salaries  to 
prevent  them  from  being  engaged  elsewhere  ?  "  He  pro- 
posed a  merger  into  which  he  and  the  Metropolitan  should 
go  as  equal  partners;  if  the  company  did  not  accept  his 
proposition  he  would  go  into  the  next  season  with  his 
knowledge  increased  by  experience.  If,  however,  the 
merger  were  entered  into  he  would  revert  to  the  spoken 
drama  at  the  Manhattan  Opera  House.  To  this  overture 
the  directors  of  the  Metropolitan  made  a  curt  reply :  "  Mr. 
Hammerstein  is  within  his  rights  in  making  any  suggestion 
he  pleases.  These  suggestions,  however,  will  not  interfere 
with  nor  change  the  policy  of  the  management  of  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  Company." 

Through  Arthur  Hammerstein  the  story  had  gone  out 
that  the  Metropolitan  Company  had  proposed  the  merger 
to  his  father.  On  the  day  after  Mr.  Hammerstein  had  given 
out  his  interview  a  director  of  the  Metropolitan  Company 
denied  emphatically  that  negotiations  of  any  kind  were 
pending  between  the  rival  institutions.  He  also  denied  that 
his  company  had  offered  Hammerstein  compensation  if  he 
would  retire  from  the  operatic  field  and  incidentally  gave 
a  glimpse  into  the  Alexandrian  ambitions  of  himself  and 
colleagues. 

The  aim  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  and  its  allied  in- 
terests [he  said]  is  to  give  the  very  best  opera  possible  not  only  in 
New  York,  but  also  in  those  cities  where  there  is  a  demand  for 
operatic  performances  of  a  higher  order.  The  Metropolitan  is  not 
looking  to  the  material  side  of  the  question,  namely  whether  opera 
pays  or  whether  it  does  not;  and  while  it  is  true  that  under  present 
conditions  it  is  well-nigh  impossible  to  place  opera  on  a  remunera- 
tive basis  this  phase  of  the  situation  does  not  embarrass  the  man- 
agement in  the  slightest  degree.  The  whole  proposition  is  a  very 
much  broader  one  than  is  generally  supposed.  In  fact  it  is  of 
national  scope.  By  this  I  mean  that  under  the  leadership  of  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  Company  it  will  not  be  at  all  improbable  that 


HAMMERSTElW   WILLING  TO  SELL  OUT  77 

in  time  an  operatic  basis  may  be  established  in  every  principal  city 
of  the  United  States.  In  connection  with  this  I  have  only  to  cite  the 
recent  formation  of  the  Metropolitan  Chicago  Opera  Company 
whereby  Chicago  is  to  have  an  operatic  season  of  twenty  weeks 
beginning  the  coming  fall.  This  is  the  entering  wedge  in  the  great 
West. 

Mr.  Hammerstein  retorted  that  he  had  never  taken  any 
stock  in  the  negotiations,  but  was  as  full  of  fight  as  ever 
and  thought  that  New  York  would  find  him  giving  opera  for 
the  next  fifteen  years.  On  the  heels  of  this  he  announced 
the  engagement  for  the  season  191011  of  Mary  Garden, 
Lina  Cavalieri,  Maurice  Renaud,  Charles  Dalmores,  and 
Charles  Gilibert,  but  intimated  that  he  would  abandon 
opera  in  Philadelphia.  "  The  enormous  railroad  expenses," 
he  explained,  "  figuring  over  $30,000  a  season,  the  steady 
employment  of  a  resident  orchestra,  chorus,  and  immense 
working  force  for  but  four  operas  a  week,  make  the  present 
mode  of  giving  opera  without  any  guarantee  even  with  large 
attendance  unremunerative.  The  great  edifice  including  the 
improvements  made  since  its  erection  has  cost  nearly 
$1,500,000.  There  is  a  mortgage  of  only  $400,000  on  this 
property,  leaving  an  investment  of  over  $1,000,000."  He 
added  that  he  had  been  offered  an  annual  rental  of  $100,000 
for  the  Philadelphia  house  and  threatened  that  unless  he 
received  a  guarantee  of  $600,000  a  year  he  would  abandon 
opera  in  Philadelphia.  Thereupon  the  Metropolitan  Com- 
pany announced  that  in  the  next  season  it  would  forego  the 
guarantee  of  $7,500  each  from  a  number  of  its  patrons  in 
Philadelphia  and  give  opera  at  its  own  risk.  Hammerstein 
reiterated  his  demand  for  a  guarantee  and  flatly  declared 
that  in  the  preceding  November  the  Metropolitan  Company 
had  offered  to  buy  his  opera  house  provided  he  would  with- 
draw from  the  operatic  field.  He  was  now  willing  to  sell 
the  house  to  the  company  and  leave  the  local  field  to  the 
purchaser  while  he  devoted  himself  henceforth  to  his  "  life's 
labor  in  the  cause  of  art  and  great  music  in  New  York." 

Meanwhile  the  Metropolitan  directors  were  occupied  in 


78    METROPOLITAN  CO-OPERATION  WITH  CHICAGO 

developing  their  scheme  of  expansion  and  monopoly  and 
the  newspapers  were  busy  with  rumors  touching  the 
changes  in  the  operatic  world  which  were  impending.  In 
February,  1910,  it  was  bruited  about  that  Mr.  Dippel  would 
sever  his  connection  with  the  Metropolitan  at  the  end  of  the 
season  and  that  Mr.  Gatti  would  thereafter  be  sole  manager. 
Also  that  Mr.  Henry  Russell  would  replace  Mr.  Gatti  and 
Signer  Mugnone  Signer  Toscanini.  The  executive  com- 
mittee gave  the  public  to  understand  that  action  on  the 
future  administration  of  the  Opera  would  not  be  taken  until 
May  i.  A  month  before  that  date,  however,  Mr.  Dippel, 
with  the  consent  of  the  directors,  made  it  known  that  he 
had  resigned  as  administrative  director  and  would  assume 
the  general  management  of  a  Chicago  company,  the  plans 
of  which  he  had  conceived  and  perfected.  In  this  company 
the  leading  stockholders  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Com- 
pany were  interested  and  though  it  was  independent  it 
would  co-operate  with  the  New  York  organization.  His 
letter  was  dated  March  30,  and  to  it  the  executive  committee 
made  public  answer  lauding  Mr.  Dippel's  services  to  the 
company  and  making  a  declaration  plainly  designed  to  allay 
any  apprehensions  which  opera  patrons  might  feel  concern- 
ing the  future  of  the  German  repertory.  The  declaration 
ran: 


Inasmuch  as  certain  statements  have  been  published  insinuating 
that  your  resignation  is  due  to  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of  the 
board  because  of  the  so-called  "  expansion  "  policy,  it  is  but  just 
that  we  should  give  an  emphatic  and  offical  denial  to  such  state- 
ments. The  expansion  policy  had  to  be  tried  and  tested.  Whether 
a  contrary  policy  would  have  produced  materially  better  results  is 
a  matter  of  speculation  and  can  not  be  a  matter  of  certainty.  We 
gladly  bear  witness  to  the  fact  that  you  have  been  a  large  factor 
in  bringing  about  the  very  gratifying  increase  in  interest  and  ap- 
preciation which  the  patrons  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  have 
demonstrated  in  the  Wagnerian  performances  during  the  last  two 
seasons  as  compared  with  preceding  years.  No  deterioration  will 
be  permitted  of  the  standard  which  now  prevails.  The  eclectic  taste 
of  Mr.  Gatti-Casazza,  who  was  foremost  in  the  fight  for  the  intro- 


MR.  STOTESBURY  TO  THE  RESCUE  79 

duction  of  the  Wagner  operas  in  Italy,  the  common  devotion  and 
enthusiasm  of  Messrs.  Toscanini  and  Hertz  for  German  art,  are 
ample  warrant  for  this  statement  quite  apart  from  the  fact  that  it 
would  be  nothing  short  of  folly  meeting  with  the  instant  and  deter- 
mined disapproval  of  our  board  no  less  than  of  the  public  to  deviate 
from  those  traditions  of  internationalism  in  art  which  have  made 
the  Metropolitan  opera  what  it  is. 

At  this  time  Hammerstein  was  losing  money  on  his 
operatic  undertakings  at  the  rate  of  about  $25,000  a  week. 
Three  years  later  he  testified  in  a  court  of  law  that  the  last 
fourteen  weeks  of  the  season  in  Philadelphia  had  cost  him 
$80,000.  There  was  then  a  strike  of  the  employees  of  the 
street  trolley  lines  in  that  city  and  the  general  attendance 
at  the  opera  shrunk  so  greatly  as  to  be  practically  negligible. 
On  one  occasion  the  box-office  receipts  were  only  $157. 
Mr.  Hammerstein  suspended  the  performances.  Mr. 
Stotesbury  had  loaned  him  also  $200,000  on  the  security 
of  a  mortgage  on  the  Manhattan  Opera  House  in  New 
York.  Mr.  Stotesbury  again  came  to  his  rescue  in  the  new 
emergency ;  he  agreed  to  advance  him  money  to  liquidate 
the  weekly  payroll  of  the  opera  house  if  Mr.  Hammerstein 
would  reopen  it.  The  representations  were  resumed  and 
Mr.  Hammerstein  made  public  acknowledgment  of  the 
public-spirited  generosity  of  his  patron  in  a  curtain  speech. 
At  the  end  of  the  season  it  was  found  that  Mr.  Stotesbury 
had  advanced  $39,960.  This  Mr.  Hammerstein  did  not 
repay,  and  when  Mr.  Stotesbury  took  legal  action  two  or 
three  years  afterward  to  recover  the  money  Mr.  Hammer- 
stein testified  that  it  had  not  been  a  loan  but  a  gift ;  and 
the  newspapers  thought  this  testimony,  which  was  filled 
with  denunciations  of  his  patron,  vastly  diverting.  Mr. 
Hammerstein  was  a  humorist  and  again  "  good  copy." 

After  negotiations  extending  over  six  weeks  it  was  an- 
nounced on  April  28,  1910,  that  Mr.  Stotesbury,  for  him- 
self, a  number  of  Philadelphians,  and  some  stockholders  of 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  of  New  York,  had  bought 
the  Philadelphia  Opera  House  and  all  of  Mr.  Hammer- 


8o  HAMMERSTEIN  SELLS  OUT 

stein's  operatic  properties  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York 
except  the  Manhattan  Opera  House,  and  that  Mr.  Hammer- 
stein  (through  his  son  Arthur,  who  held  his  power  of  at- 
torney, he  having  gone  to  Europe)  had  covenanted  with  the 
purchasers  not  to  engage  in  any  way  in  the  management  of 
grand  opera  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  or  Chicago 
for  a  period  of  ten  years.  Mr.  Stotesbury's  published 
reasons  for  making  the  purchase  were  that  a  company 
supplying  both  New  York  and  Philadelphia  with  opera 
could  not  do  justice  to  the  latter  city,  which  was  entitled  to 
an  opera  company  of  its  own  and  a  season  of  ten  or  twelve 
weeks.  Inasmuch  as  artists  would  not  come  to  the  city  for 
so  short  a  time  arrangements  would  be  made  with  the  new 
Chicago  company  organized  by  Mr.  Dippel  and  conducted 
by  Mr.  Cleofonte  Campanini,  who  had  been  Mr.  Hammer- 
stein's  conductor,  by  which  there  would  be  ten  weeks  of 
opera  in  Chicago  and  the  same  number  of  weeks  in  Phila- 
delphia. There  was  also  to  be  an  exchange  of  leading 
singers  with  the  New  York  and  Boston  companies.  Mr. 
T.  De  Witt  Cuyler,  of  Philadelphia,  was  already  a  member 
of  the  Metropolitan  board  of  directors  and  Mr.  Stotes- 
bury  was  associated  with  him,  while  Otto  H.  Kahn,  Clar- 
ence H.  Mackay,  and  William  K.  Vanderbilt  joined  the 
directorate  of  the  Philadelphia  organization. 

The  season  of  1909-10  resulted  in  a  loss  to  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  Company  of  about  $300,000.  In  a  curtain 
speech  on  the  night  before  his  New  York  season  was 
brought  to  a  close  Mr.  Hammerstein  said :  "  The  past  season 
financially  has  been  a  very  unfortunate  one,  but  there  has 
been  a  deluge  of  musical  efforts  and  a  surfeit  of  grand 
opera.  While  my  losses  have  been  enormous,  I  am  proud 
of  knowing  that  those  of  my  adversaries  have  been  much 
larger.  My  efforts  in  the  great  cause,  however,  will  not 
relax,  and  I  am  planning  for  next  season  the  greatest  and 
most  sublime  opera  for  the  pleasure  of  my  audience  and 
the  honor  of  myself."  He  owned  contracts  for  the  per- 


LOOKING  FOR  NEW  WORLDS  TO  CONQUER          81 

forming  rights  of  a  number  of  operas,  some  of  which  he 
had  given  and  some  not,  and  for  the  services  of  Mary 
Garden,  Luisa  Tetrazzini,  Maurice  Renaud,  Charles  Dai- 
mores,  Charles  Gilibert,  John  McCormack,  and  Mario  Sam- 
marco;  these  were  transferred  to  the  Chicago-Philadelphia, 
or  Philadelphia-Chicago,  Company. 

Mr.  Hammerstein  did  not  long  lie  quiescent  on  the  field 
of  battle  after  the  war  with  his  Metropolitan  rivals.  Mana- 
gerially  he  had  been  decapitated,  but  his  headless  trunk  was 
like  the  Irishman's  snake,  dead  but  not  cognizant  of  the 
fact,  while  his  trunkless  head  was  like  that  of  the  victim  of 
Ko-Ko's  fictitious  execution : 

Now  tho'  you'd  have  said  that  head  was  dead, 

(For  its  owner  dead  was  he), 
It  stood  on  its  neck,  with  a  smile  well-bred, 
And  bowed  three  times  to — 

Pooh-Bah,  if  that  aristocratic  individual's  circumstantial 
account  of  the  incident  which  Mr.  Gilbert's  operatic  people 
cooked  up  for  the  edification  of  the  Mikado  is  to  be  be- 
lieved. The  Metropolitan's  saber  true  having  cut  cleanly 
through  the  Hammersteinian  cervical  vertebrae,  the  Hani- 
mersteinian  head  bowed  first  most  politely  to  Mr.  Gilbert's 
home  city.  Its  owner  had  been  compelled  to  relinquish  his 
managerial  ambition  for  a  space  in  four  great  American 
cities,  but  the  rest  of  the  world  was  his  oyster  could  he 
but  open  it.  Mr.  Hammerstein  resolved  to  try  and  inserted 
the  point  of  his  sword  at  London.  He  was  in  Europe  when 
the  contract  of  sale  was  signed  by  his  son.  Before  sailing 
from  New  York  he  had  spoken  of  his  plans  for  the  next 
season  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia.  These  plans  em- 
braced a  reform  in  the  sale  of  tickets,  something  like  that 
which  was  forced  upon  the  Metropolitan  Company  three 
years  afterwards  by  a  disgraceful  scandal,  and  also  the 
employment  of  a  Russian  ballet  towards  which  the  thoughts 
of  managers  in  London  and  New  York  had  been  turned  by 
a  Parisian  success.  Though  barred  from  the  field  of  grand 


82  HAMMERSTEIN  INVADES  LONDON 

opera,  that  of  comic  opera  or  operetta  was  free  to  him  and 
to  this  form  of  entertainment  he  opened  the  Manhattan 
Opera  House  on  September  20,  1910,  with  an  exceedingly 
bright  little  piece  called  "  Hans,  the  Flute  Player  "  adapted 
from  the  French,  which  had  won  success  at  its  first  pro- 
duction at  Monte  Carlo  in  1906  and  at  the  Theatre  Apollo 
in  Paris  in  the  spring  of  1910.  Called  before  the  curtain 
after  the  second  act  on  the  first  night  in  New  York  Mr. 
Hammerstein  told  his  audience  that  he  intended  going  to 
London,  not  for  the  purpose  of  making  it  his  permanent 
home  but  to  advance  the  new  enterprise  on  which  he  had 
embarked.  I  make  no  doubt  but  that  he  had  already 
formed  a  resolution  to  set  up  a  rival  to  the  ancient  estab- 
lishment in  Covent  Garden  and  that  his  visit  was  for  the 
purpose  of  finding  a  site  for  a  new  opera  house.  About  a 
year  before  this  time  a  wide  thoroughfare  had  been  opened 
in  London  in  the  heart  of  a  district  heavy  with  the  cluster- 
ings of  theatrical  traditions.  It  was  called  The  Kingsway, 
was  about  equidistant  from  Covent  Garden  and  Drury  Lane, 
and  debouched  into  the  Strand.  In  this  spacious  street  Mr. 
Hammerstein  caused  a  beautiful  theater  to  be  built  of 
granite  and  marble  at  a  cost  of  about  $750,000.  Of  the 
money  expended  on  the  construction  $300,000  came  from 
the  sale  of  the  Philadelphia  and  New  York  interests,  that 
sum  being  still  in  his  hands  after  he  had  paid  off  the  mort- 
gages held  by  Mr.  Stotesbury,  similar  encumbrances  on  the 
Manhattan  Opera  House,  Victoria  and  Republic  Theaters 
which  he  owned  in  New  York,  and  other  debts  amounting 
to  about  $150,000. 

With  characteristic  confidence  and  energy  he  began  his 
London  experiment  and  had  seen  the  foundations  of  his 
new  building  laid  when  he  returned  to  New  York  in  Jan- 
uary, 1911.  Characteristic  also  was  his  reply  to  a  reporter's 
question :  "  What  do  you  intend  to  open  the  house  with  ?  " 

"  With  debts,"  was  the  reply ;  "  I  always  open  a  house 
with  debts." 


u 

O 

E 


w 
Pi 

O 


ffi 

« 
< 
u 

t/3 

O 


FAILURE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  ENTERPRISE  83 

There  was  a  suggestion  that  the  English  people  might  not 
take  him  seriously  and  out  came  another  exhibition  of  his 
character : 

"  I  will  make  them.  It  is  not  a  question  of  what  they 
will  do,  but  of  what  I  shall  do." 

The  story  of  the  London  attempt  can  be  only  a  short 
interlude  here.  The  opera  house  in  The  Kingsway  was 
opened  on  November  13,  1911,  with  a  performance  of  "  Quo 
Vadis."  Mr.  Hammerstein  was  his  own  manager ;  he  asked 
no  English  help,  but  called  to  his  side  two  trusted,  faithful, 
and  capable  servants  from  New  York,  Lyle  D.  Andrews 
and  Jacques  Coini,  who  had  been  respectively  treasurer  and 
stage-manager  at  the  Manhattan  Opera  House.  At  the  out- 
set fortune  seemed  to  smile  propitiously  upon  the  under- 
taking. On  the  opening  night  the  receipts  amounted  to  over 
$6,600,  and  in  the  first  week  to  over  $21,000.  A  winter 
season  of  15  weeks  was  given  at  which  12  operas  were  per- 
formed, and  a  summer  season  of  12  weeks  from  April  22 
to  July  13,  1912.  Among  the  operas  performed  in  this 
second  season  was  "  Les  Cloches  de  Corneville,"  which  the 
redoubtable  manager  himself  conducted.  Then  came  an 
incident  of  a  kind  familiar  enough  to  operatic  history  but 
concerning  which  the  public  is  seldom  informed.  The  clos- 
ing days  of  Mr.  Stanton's  consulship  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  saw  such  an  occurrence,  the  closing  days  of 
Mr.  Grau's  another,  in  the  first  of  which  the  reward  took 
the  shape  of  baubles  distributed  by  royalty ;  and  suspicion 
has  touched  at  least  one  of  the  productions  under  the  pres- 
ent administration.  Doings  of  the  kind  involve  no  moral 
turpitude,  yet  they  are  always  surrounded  with  mystery. 
In  the  present  instance  a  wealthy  and  titled  amateur  com- 
poser wrote  an  opera,  wanted  to  have  it  performed,  and 
paid  the  piper  for  his  dance.  Lord  Howard  de  Walden's 
"  The  Children  of  Don,"  for  which  Josef  Holbrooke  com- 
posed the  music,  was  produced  by  Mr.  Hammerstein  a  fort- 
night before  the  close  of  the  season.  It  was  a  pretentious 


84  THE  THEATER  IN  THE  KINGSWAY  SOLD 

work  and  made  a  dismal  failure,  so  great  a  failure,  indeed, 
that  although  Lord  Howard  was  the  holder  of  a  mortgage 
for  forty  thousand  pounds  on  the  opera  house  and  had 
contributed  a  large  sum  for  the  production  of  the  opera, 
Mr.  Hammerstein  refused  to  give  it  the  third  performance 
which  the  composer  asked  or  demanded.  Thereupon  there 
came  a  rupture  of  relations  which  had  fateful  consequences. 

On  the  last  night  of  his  season  Mr.  Hammerstein,  follow- 
ing his  American  methods,  addressed  the  London  public  in 
a  speech  from  the  stage  in  which  he  said  that  he  was  going 
to  New  York  to  look  after  his  home  interests  but  would  be 
back  for  the  next  season  with  new  singers  and  new  operas. 
The  business  which  called  him  back  to  New  York  grew  out 
of  entanglements  at  the  Victoria  Theater,  which  had  been 
the  most  prolific  source  of  supply  in  his  earlier  enterprises. 
Returned  to  America  he  made  a  contract  of  rental  and  sale 
of  the  Kingsway  house  through  Mr.  Andrews  to  Mr.  Stan- 
ley Denton,  a  gentleman  who  was  reputed  to  have  an  income 
of  £30,000  a  year.  The  new  manager  made  the  theater  the 
home  of  a  review  entitled  "  Come  Over  Here,"  which 
achieved  a  popular  success.  The  overhead  expenses  of  the 
house,  however,  were  so  great  that  he  became  involved  in 
financial  difficulties  and  he  defaulted  in  his  payments  to  Mr. 
Hamme'rstein.  Thereupon  Lord  Howard  foreclosed  the 
mortgage  and  became  the  owner  of  the  house.  Mr.  Ham- 
merstein lost  the  whole  amount  of  his  investment. 

Returned  to  New  York  Mr.  Hammerstein  devoted  the 
summer  to  an  adjustment  of  the  affairs  of  the  Victoria 
Theater  and  to  a  search  for  new  worlds  to  conquer,  with 
faith  in  himself  undimmed  and  courage  undaunted.  Up 
from  the  quagmire  flew  the  old  ignis  fatuus  of  opera  at 
popular  prices.  In  November,  1912,  he  broached  his  new 
scheme  to  the  public.  He  wanted  to  build  another  opera 
house  and  in  it  produce  English  opera  at  prices  ranging 
from  three  dollars  down  to  fifty  cents,  but  he  confessed 
that  to  do  this  it  would-  be  necessary  for  him  to  obtain  the 


A  NEW  PROJECT  FOR  NEW  YORK  85 

consent  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company,  the  contract 
with  which,  he  said,  prevented  him  from  giving  opera  on 
his  own  account  and  also  stood  in  the  way  of  his  acceptance 
of  two  offers  of  assistance,  one  from  a  music-publishing 
house,  the  other  from  a  Russian  impresario  connected  with 
the  Royal  Opera  at  St.  Petersburg.  The  statement  was 
characteristic  of  the  time  when  the  air  was  full  of  stories 
about  new  rivals  of  the  Metropolitan  Company  and  when 
no  tale  could  be  told  so  absurd  that  it  would  not  find  pub- 
lication and  credence.  There  was  no  Royal  Opera  in  St. 
Petersburg  with  which  an  impresario  could  be  connected, 
but  only  the  Imperial  Russian  Opera  administered  through 
a  court  official  by  the  Czar  himself,  who  was  not  likely  to 
concern  himself  with  operatic  projects  in  America.  As  to 
the  other  interest  the  statement  sounded  like  nothing  more 
than  an  echo  of  some  talk  in  which  Mr.  Tito  Ricordi  had 
indulged  two  years  before  at  a  juncture  when  the  Metro- 
politan people  professed  to  be  big  with  an  ambition  to 
foster  opera  in  the  vernacular.  At  a  dinner  which  grew 
out  of  a  movement  inaugurated  by  the  Metropolitan  Com- 
pany's offer  of  a  prize  for  an  opera  in  English  by  a  native 
composer  Mr.  Ricordi,  whose  publications  occupied  a  large 
part  of  the  Metropolitan  repertory,  had  considerable  to  say 
about  the  need  of  a  greater  number  of  opera  houses  in  the 
United  States.  The  talk  was  a  symptom  of  the  prevalent 
operatic  mania,  anything  but  philanthropic  in  motive,  and 
before  Mr.  Ricordi  returned  to  Italy  he  had 'given  a  quietus 
to  the  story  that  the  house  of  Ricordi  was  about'  to  engage 
in  such  an  enterprise  as  the  sanguine  champions  of  Ameri- 
can opera  thought.  Italian  publishers  control  opera  houses 
in  Italy  not  for  altruistic  ends  or  always  for  the  good  of  art 
but  to  promote  and  safeguard  their  publications.  It  was 
because  of  a  fear  in  some  circles  that  the  system  might  be 
introduced  here  that  the  Metropolitan  Company  fell  under 
suspicion  in  1908-09. 

In  taking  his  preliminary  steps  Mr.  Hammerstein  was  not 


86    AN  APPEAL  TO  THE  METROPOLITAN  COMPANY 

inconsiderate  of  his  obligations  to  the  Metropolitan  Com- 
pany. He  addressed  a  letter  to  the  directors  of  the  company 
outlining  his  plan  and  asking  their  consent  to  its  execution. 
He  also  consulted  Paul  Cravath,  Esq.,  one  of  the  company's 
directors,  who  as  their  legal  adviser  had  drawn  up  the 
contract  of  sale.  Mr.  Cravath  was  not  inimical  to  the 
project,  in  which,  like  Mr.  Hammerstein,  he  saw  an  educa- 
tional influence  which  might  in  time  result  in  making  the 
popular  opera  a  feeder  to  the  more  aristocratic  establish- 
ment. It  so  chanced,  however,  that  Messrs.  Kahn  and 
Vanderbilt  were  in  Europe  at  the  time  and  a  consideration 
of  the  letter  had  to  wait  upon  their  return.  After  three 
weeks,  on  December  18,  1912,  the  directors  gave  their 
answer  refusing  to  allow  Mr.  Hammerstein  to  proceed  with 
his  project.  Their  refusal,  they  said,  was  based  upon  their 
belief  that  New  York  could  not  or  would  not  support  two 
opera  houses  and  that  Mr.  Hammerstein's  project  threat- 
ened harm  to  the  existing  institution.  They  gave  the  full 
text  of  their  letter  to  the  newspapers.  They  quoted  Mr. 
Hammerstein's  words  (or  rather  those  of  his  son  Arthur, 
who  had  acted  as  his  attorney-in-fact)  in  which  he  spoke  of 
the  enormous  increase  in  the  cost  of  opera  by  reason  of  the 
exactions  of  singers,  the  ruinous  cost  of  the  rivalry  between 
the  houses,  and  his  conviction  that  one  house  could  serve  the 
cause  of  opera  better  than  two  and  that  the  Metropolitan, 
because  of  its  practical  subsidy  through  its  stockholders, 
could  better  fulfil  the  public  need.  The  statement  held  out 
the  prospect  of  opera  in  English  at  the  Metropolitan  "  on 
a  basis  which  would  avoid  conflict  with  the  present  season 
of  opera  in  Italian,  French,  and  German."  Even  "  with  its 
enormous  success  "  of  the  preceding  year,  said  the  letter, 
the  Metropolitan  Company  had  "  made  practically  no 
profit"  and  better  results  were  not  expected  for  the  cur- 
rent year. 

On  the  day  on  which  the  letter  of  the  directors  appeared 
Mr.  Hammerstein,  in  the  breezy  way  which  made  the  news- 


THE  CITY  CLUB  AND  "  MUNICIPAL  OPERA  "         87 

papers  his  willing  bellmen  and  even  champions,  announced 
that  he  was  willing  to  go  ahead  with  his  project  regardless 
of  the  terms  of  his  agreement.  "  If  the  press  and  the  public 
give  me  sufficient  evidence  that  they  want  me  to  give  grand 
opera  in  English  I  will  do  it,"  were  the  words  of  his  de- 
fiance. A  new  operatic  project  essentially  like  that  of  Mr. 
Hammerstein  now  began  to  take  shape  in  the  City  Club. 
Whether  or  not  it  was  born  of  the  purpose  of  Mr.  Hammer- 
stein  and  the  refusal  of  the  Metropolitan  directors  I  shall 
not  attempt  to  say.  It  was  suspected  by  some  that  the 
project  rooted  in  the  plan  which  had  been  outlined  in  the 
letter  to  the  Metropolitan  directors  and  the  fact  that  the 
leading  spirits  of  that  directorate  at  once  gave  it  moral  and 
physical  support  lent  the  semblance  at  least  of  probability 
to  the  theory  that  the  City  Club's  scheme  of  giving  "  munici- 
pal "  opera  in  the  New  Theater,  now  called  the  Century 
Opera  House,  had  been  conceived  for  the  purpose  of  dis- 
couraging Mr.  Hammerstein  from  proceeding  with  his 
undertaking.  Mr.  Hammerstein  made  the  charge  openly 
at  the  time  and  met  with  a  denial  from  the  spokesman  of 
the  Metropolitan  Company.  In  his  latter-day  communica- 
tions on  the  subject  with  me  he  has  not  reiterated  it,  but 
seems  to  have  assumed  that  the  plan  was  born  in  the 
minds  of  some  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  Club  before  he  ad- 
dressed the  Metropolitan  directors.  I  am  now  concerned 
with  other  matters;  the  history  of  the  undertaking  which 
grew  out  of  the  public-spirited  endeavor  of  the  City  Club 
deserves  some  attention  which  it  shall  receive  in  these  chap- 
ters later.  Mr.  Hammerstein's  acts  now  become  more  sig- 
nificant than  his  words.  In  March,  1913,  he  bought  a  plot 
of  land  at  Lexington  Avenue  and  Fifty-first  Street  and 
announced  that  he  would  begin  within  two  weeks  to  build 
an  opera  house  on  it  which  would  be  opened  on  November 
10.  The  style  of  performance  should  be  that  which  he 
had  proposed  to  the  directors  of  the  Metropolitan  Company. 
The  site  was  that  formerly  occupied  by  the  Nursery  and 


88       THE  PROMISED  "  AMERICAN  OPERA  HOUSE  " 

Child's  Hospital,  75  feet  on  Lexington  Avenue  by  220  feet 
on  Fifty-first  Street.  The  building  was  to  cost  $1,000,000. 
Through  the  newspapers  he  told  the  public  that  he  was 
going  to  give  opera  in  English,  and  if  the  Metropolitan 
directors  didn't  like  it  they  might  go  to  the  courts  for 
redress.  No  other  man  being  found  willing  to  throw  him- 
self into  the  breach  for  English  opera  he  was  going  to  do  it. 
Why?  He  answered  the  question  thus:  "I  am  a  child  of 
New  York.  I  revel  in  its  greatness.  It  has  about  a  hun- 
dred theaters,  has  a  good  society  opera  house,  but  has  no 
opera  house  for  the  population  at  large.  Our  municipality 
can  not  and  will  not  aid  in  the  founding  and  maintaining 
of  such  an  edifice  and  to  our  government  such  a  proposition 
never  appeals.  With  what  I  am  doing  I  will  earn  the  ap- 
probation of  my  fellow-citizens  and  the  millions  of  lovers 
of  music  and  adherents  of  musical  culture.  .  .  .  The 
house  will  be  known  as  the  '  American  Opera  House.'  I 
think  I  will  open  Monday,  November  10,  at  8  o'clock." 

A  merry  war  was  thus  proclaimed  and  right  merrily  was 
it  carried  on  in  the  newspapers.  On  March  27  the  Metro- 
politan directors  gave  out  the  text  of  the  clause  in  the  con- 
tract of  sale  which  prohibited  Mr.  Hammerstein  and  his 
son  Arthur  from  embarking  in  any  grand  opera  enterprises 
until  1920.  It  seemed  to  be  as  ironbound  as  verbose  legal 
phraseology  could  make  it  and  deserves  to  be  reproduced 
here  as  a  matter  of  curiosity  if  for  no  other  reason.  The 
agreement  was  made  on  April  26,  1910,  on  which  day 
$100,000  earnest  money  was  paid  on  the  contract  price  of 
$1,200,000.  In  it  Oscar  Hammerstein  and  his  son  Arthur 
as  his  attorney-in-fact  and  manager  covenanted  jointly  and 
severally 

that  they  will  not,  nor  will  either  of  them  at  any  time  hereafter 
within  ten  years  from  the  date  hereof  be  or  become  directly  or 
indirectly  engaged  or  interested  or  connected  either  alone  or  as  a 
member  or  members  of  any  firm  or  partnership  or  in  conjunction 
with  others,  or  as  an  officer,  director,  manager,  stockholder,  em- 


HAMMERSTEIN'S  CONTRACTUAL  OBLIGATION       89 

ploye  of  any  corporation  that  may  be  or  become  engaged  in  any 
such  business,  or  as  an  employe  in  any  other  capacity  whatsoever  in 
the  cities  of  New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia  or  Chicago  in  the 
business  of  producing  grand  opera  ...  in  any  language,  or  any 
opera,  operetta,  or  comic  opera  that  has  ever  been  produced  at  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House  or  the  Manhattan  Opera  House  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  or  any  opera  or  comic  opera  that  may  at  any 
time  hereafter  have  been  first  given  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House  or  any  opera  house  in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  that  no 
opera,  operetta  or  comic  opera  of  the  character  described  will  be 
permitted  or  suffered  to  be  produced  upon  the  premises  now  occu- 
pied by  the  Manhattan  Opera  House  within  five  years  from  the 
date  hereof,  nor  will  the  vendor  or  the  party  of  the  second  part  be 
connected  in  any  business  that  interferes  with  or  encroaches  upon 
the  field  now  occupied  by  the  Metropolitan  Company. 

And  so  on  at  great  length  and  equal  breathlessness.  When 
this  portion  of  the  contract  of  sale  was  made  public  Mr. 
Hammerstein,  using  his  convenient  medium  of  communica- 
tion with  the  people,  retorted  that  the  overtures  to  purchase 
his  opera  interests  had  come  from  the  Metropolitan  di- 
rectors, and  that  he  had  not  listened  to  them  until  he  had 
broken  down  so  completely  in  mental  and  physical  health 
that  his  physician  had  commanded  him  to  cease  work. 
Whereupon  he  had  put  the  matter  in  the  hands  of  his  son 
Arthur  and  sailed  for  Europe  leaving  a  power  of  attorney 
for  his  son.  He  denied  that  he  had  ever  contemplated 
abandoning  the  giving  of  opera,  but  in  his  power  of  attor- 
ney, signed  on  April  15,  1910,  he  had  expressly  empowered 
his  son  to  enter  into  an  agreement  in  writing  to  the  effect 
that  he  would  not  for  the  term  of  ten  years  be  engaged 
directly  or  indirectly  or  in  any  way  with  the  business  of 
producing  opera. 

On  April  18,  1913,  Mr.  Hammerstein  announced  to  the 
world  that  he  had  borrowed  $335,000  for  his  operatic  enter- 
prise and  would  begin  building  as  soon  as  he  got  a  title 
to  the  ground.  Twelve  days  later  he  gave  out  a  statement 
that  if  the  City  Club  persisted  in  its  purpose  he  would 
abandon  his  English  opera  plan  and  enter  into  competition 
with  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  by  giving  French 


go  A  THREAT  TO  RENEW  COMPETITION 

and  Italian  opera  at  Metropolitan  prices.  Later,  I  believe, 
he  borrowed  $450,000  from  the  Manhattan  Life  Insurance 
Company  which  he  put  into  the  Lexington  Avenue  property 
in  addition  to  $200,000  which  he  had  obtained  from  the 
United  Booking  Company  for  the  privilege  of  giving  vaude- 
ville at  the  Palace  Theater  which  was  within  the  zone  in 
which  he  held  a  monopoly  for  the  Victoria  Theater.  From 
the  profits  of  this  playhouse  he  had  accumulated  a  further 
sum  of  $100,000.  He  had  made  contracts  with  singers  con- 
fident that  his  original  project  would  not  meet  with  opposi- 
tion from  the  Metropolitan  directors.  He  had  taken  counsel 
of  distinguished  jurists  and  rejected  the  common-sense  ad- 
vice of  those  concerned  with  him  in  the  administration  of 
his  theatrical  affairs.  With  his  opera  company  he  purposed 
to  give  performances  in  a  large  number  of  cities  through- 
out the  country  and  to  sow  opera  houses  broadcast  wherever 
he  could  obtain  a  gift  of  land  on  which  to  build  and  a  loan. 
He  probably  felt  that  he  was  justified  in  his  effort  to  give 
opera  for  a  supposedly  famishing  public  no  matter  what 
interpretation  the  purchasers  of  his  interests  in  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  put  upon  the  contract  he  had  made  with 
them.  He  was  warned  by  them  on  May  15  that  they  would 
take  legal  steps  to  enjoin  him  if  he  persisted  in  his  purpose, 
but  the  only  effect  of  the  admonition  was  to  call  out  more 
of  what  the  newspapers  considered  his  humor.  Thereupon, 
on  July  2,  1913,  the  Metropolitan  Company  filed  a  summons 
and  complaint  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  New 
York  asking  that  he  and  his  son  be  enjoined  from  putting 
their  purpose  to  give  opera  into  effect.  The  answers  of 
Mr.  Hammerstein  admitted  nearly  every  essential  allegation 
in  the  complaint,  but  set  up  a  series  of  affirmative  defenses, 
telling  at  great  length  how  the  plaintiff  had  forced  him  into 
the  contract  for  the  purpose  of  creating  a  monopoly,  taken 
advantage  of  his  wrecked  body  and  perturbed  mind,  had 
tempted  a  dozen  singers  away  from  him,  compelled  him  to 
pay  other  artists  more  than  they  were  worth,  and  brought 


HAMMERSTEIN  IS  ENJOINED  91 

him  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  He  sought  refuge  in  the  plea 
that  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  was  engaged  in 
interstate  trade  and  commerce  and  that  its  acts  towards  him 
were  in  restraint  of  trade  and  fell  under  the  condemnation 
of  the  federal  statute  called  the  Sherman  Act. 

After  the  issue  had  been  joined  Mr.  Hammerstein  con- 
tinued to  publish  his  pronunciamentos  in  the  newspapers. 
He  would  begin  his  season  on  November  17  and  play  Eng- 
lish opera  all  the  year  around,  and  French  and  Italian  part 
of  the  time.  This  was  in  October  when  the  newspapers 
were  showing  a  generous  spirit  toward  the  Century  Opera, 
which  had  crystallized  into  a  fact.  If  judgment  went 
against  him  in  the  equity  proceedings  he  would  turn  his 
contracts  and  properties  over  to  a  corporation  which  was 
to  be  organized  for  the  purpose  of  giving  opera  in  the  Lex- 
ington Avenue  Opera  House.  The  Metropolitan  Opera 
Company,  having  filed  a  demurrer  to  the  answers  of  the 
defendants,  finally  decided  to  quit  trying  the  case  in  the 
newspapers  and  filed  a  motion  for  judgment  on  the  plead- 
ings averring  that  the  defendants  had  admitted  every 
material  allegation  in  the  complaint  and  urging  that  the 
defenses  set  up  were  unsound  in  law  and  even  if  true  were 
immaterial.  This  motion  was  argued  before  Judge  Pendle- 
ton  of  the  Supreme  Court  on  October  18,  1913.  Before 
judgment  was  rendered  Mr.  Hammerstein  announced  an- 
other change  of  plans.  The  completion  of  his  house  had 
been  delayed  by  the  architects,  but  the  theater  would  be 
opened  in  January,  1914,  and  a  series  of  operas  in  English 
would  be  given  at  popular  prices.  In  due  course  Judge 
Pendleton  pronounced  judgment,  granting  the  injunction 
prayed  for  by  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company,  holding 
that  the  giving  of  opera  was  not  trade  or  commerce  and 
that  the  Sherman  anti-trust  law  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
case.  This  judgment  was  affirmed  on  appeal  by  the 
Appellate  Division  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  April,  1914,  but 
long  before  then  work  had  stopped  at  the  opera  house  and 


92  DEATH  OF  HAMMERSTEIN 

Mr.  Hammerstein's  protestations  of  an  unalterable  deter- 
mination to  give  operatic  representations  whether  or  no  also 
came  to  an  end.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  enterprise 
fostered  by  the  City  Club  had  made  a  loss  of  $50,000  in  the 
season,  which  also  came  to  an  end  for  the  time  being  about 
the  time  of  the  decision,  Mr.  Hammerstein's  judicious 
friends  and  counselors  were  disposed  to  congratulate  him 
upon  his  involuntary  inactivity,  but  he  was  after  all  more 
an  object  of  pity  than  felicitation.  Within  four  months 
three  of  his  sons  died  and  his  health  was  shattered  that 
as  I  write  he  is  not  yet  fully  recovered,  though  some  of  the 
old  spirit  seems  to  be  flaming  up  within  him.*  After  some 
delay  he  completed  the  building  of  the  opera  house  and  it 
was  used  for  picture  shows  and  vaudeville  performances, 
with  a  melancholy  suggestion  of  its  original  purpose  in  the 
way  of  performances  of  fragments  of  operas.  It  was  found 
to  be  impossible  to  meet  the  running  expenses  of  the  house 

*  Mr.  Hammerstein  died  in  New  York  on  August  i,  1919,  while 
this  book  was  in  process  of  manufacture.  He  was  a  native  of 
Berlin,  where  he  was  born  in  1847.  When  he  was  sixteen  years 
old  he  left  his  father's  home,  and  came  to  New  York,  where  he 
learned,  and  for  a  time  followed,  the  trade  of  cigar-making.  In 
1870  he  established  and  became  the  editor  of  a  journal  devoted  to 
the  tobacco  trade  and  at  about  the  same  time  associated  himself  with 
Mr.  Adolph  Neuendorff  in  the  management  of  a  German  the- 
atrical enterprise  which  was  housed  at  the  Germania  Theater  in 
East  Fourteenth  Street.  With  his  partner  he  was  instrumental  in 
bringing  Heinrich  Conned  to  America.  A  number  of  inventions 
in  cigar-making  machinery  and  speculations  in  real  estate  put  him 
on  the  road  to  financial  prosperity  and  a  liking  for  theatrical 
management  led  him  into  the  undertakings  in  which  he  accom- 
plished many  notable  things  but  led  to  financial  disaster  at  last. 
In  October,  1891,  he  entered  into  rivalry  with  Rudolph  Aronson  for 
the  first  performance  in  New  York  of  "  Cavalleria  Rusticana,"  and 
in  the  same  year  he  built  a  theater  in  One  .Hundred  and  Twenty- 
fifth  Street  which  he  called  the  Harlem  Opera  House.  Here  he 
made  unsuccessful  efforts  for  a  short  time  to  give  operatic  per- 
formances in  English  and  German.  Two  years  later  he  built  the 
first  Manhattan  Opera  House  in  West  Thirty-fourth  Street,  at 
which  he  made  a  more  ambitious  effort  with  Moszkowski's  "  Boab- 
dil"  and  Beethoven's  "  Fidelio,"  but  found  himself  at  the  end  of 


THE  LEXINGTON  AVENUE  THEATER  93 

from  the  receipts,  however,  and  Mr.  Hammerstein  failing  to 
pay  the  interest  and  other  charges  the  Manhattan  Life  In- 
surance foreclosed  its  mortgage  and  purchased  the  property 
to  protect  its  loan.  Only  in  the  season  of  1917-18,  when  it 
was  hired  by  the  Chicago  Opera  Company  for  a  season  of 
opera,  did  its  walls  give  back  the  echoes  with  which  Mr. 
Hammerstein  contemplated  that  they  should  always  ring. 

his  resources  at  the  end  of  a  fortnight.  The  opera  house  became 
first  a  music  hall  managed  by  Koster  and  Bial  and  finally  gave  way 
to  a  mercantile  house.  In  April,  1907,  he  opened  his  second  Man- 
hattan Opera  House,  which  became  the  rival  for  a  space  of  the 
Metropolitan  establishment.  Of  the  ten  or  dozen  theaters  which  he 
built  in  the  course  of  his  career  only  two  or  three  were  sources  of 
financial  profit  to  him.  (See  "Chapters  of  Opera,"  by  H.  E.  Kreh- 
biel,  New  York.  Henry  Holt  and  Co.,  pages  220  et  seq.,  and  Chap- 
ters XXII,  XXIV,  and  XXV.) 


CHAPTER  V 

LAST  SEASONS  AT  THE  MANHATTAN 
OPERA  HOUSE 

MR.  HAMMERSTEIN'S  PROMISES  AND  PERFORMANCES— CIRCUS 
ADVERTISING— SPECIAL  REPRESENTATIONS  AND  PRICES— 
MLLE.  LABIA— REVIVAL  OF  "  SAMSON  ET  DALILA "— "  LE 
JONGLEUR  DE  NOTRE  DAME  "—ENGAGEMENT  OF  LINA  CA- 
VALIERI— MISS  GARDEN  RESENTS  HER  DESIRE  TO  APPEAR 
IN  THAIS— MANAGERS  AND  NEWSPAPER-MEN  COME  TO 
BLOWS— MISS  GARDEN  HOLDS  THE  FIELD— PRODUCTION  OF 
"  SALOME  "—HISTORY  OF  THE  OPERA  IN  AMERICA— OP^RA 
COMJQUE  AND  OPERA  BOUFFE— "  PRINCESSE  D'AUBERGE  "— 
"  HERODIADE  "— "  SAPHO  "—JEAN  DE  RESZKE  AND  TRANS- 
LATIONS —  "  TANNHAUSER  "  IN  FRENCH  —  "  GRISELIDIS  "  — 
" ELEKTRA " 

THE  third  season  of  grand  opera  at  the  Manhattan  Opera 
House  began  on  November  9,  1908,  and  ended  on  March  27, 
1909.  During  this  period  of  twenty  weeks  there  were  five 
regular  performances  a  week  for  which  subscriptions  had 
been  invited  in  June.  Had  the  rule  been  strictly  followed 
the  season  would  have  been  compassed  by  one  hundred 
representations;  but  advantage  was  taken,  in  accordance 
with  New  York  custom,  of  occasions  which  seemed  aus- 
picious, such  as  popular  holidays  and  the  advent  of  a  sensa- 
tional novelty,  to  add  four  to  the  number  of  representations. 
In  this  instance  there  was  only  a  quasi-novelty,  Richard 
Strauss's  "  Salome,"  which  had  been  flamboyantly  adver- 
tised by  the  circumstances  attending  its  production  and  with- 
drawal at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  in  the  season  of 
1906-07 ;  *  but  Mr.  Hammerstein  took  occasion  to  prove  the 
disinterestedness  of  his  aims  and  the  sincerity  of  his  pro- 
testations by  raising  the  price  of  admission  on  its  first  per- 

*  See  "  Chapters  of  Opera,"  pp.  343-357. 

94 


ALTRUISM  AND  MERCENARINESS  95 

formance.  This  proceeding,  in  which  he  was  but  following 
the  example  of  his  rival,  may,  I  suppose,  be  looked  upon  as 
a  venial  sin.  The  public  was  used  to  it  and  expected  nothing 
else.  Looked  at  in  the  light  thrown  on  it  by  some  of  the 
incidents  of  the  rivalry  between  the  opera  houses,  however, 
it  becomes  worthy  of  comment  for  instruction  in  righteous- 
ness if  not  for  reproof.  If  we  could  but  believe  the  as- 
severations put  forth  by  the  managers  of  the  contending 
opera  houses  there  never  was  a  period  in  the  history  of 
opera  in  which  managerial  altruism  reached  such  a  noble 
height  as  it  did  during  the  years  of  rivalry  between  the 
Metropolitan  and  Manhattan  establishments.  The  dear 
public's  consuming  hunger  for  opera  was  to  be  gratified 
and  its  taste  uplifted  no  matter  what  sacrifices  of  money 
were  entailed  by  the  devoted  purveyors  of  the  costly  enter- 
tainment. Nevertheless  every  opportunity  to  exploit  popu- 
lar curiosity  concerning  a  new  work  was  seized  upon  as  an 
excuse  for  a  representation  outside  of  the  subscription  and 
at  advanced  prices  of  admission.  This  proceeding,  together 
with  a  system  of  brigandage  practised  by  the  box-offices  in 
collusion  with  the  ticket-speculators,  made  the  people  pay  a 
great  deal  more  for  their  luxury  than  a  glance  at  the  official 
prospectuses  would  lead  one  to  conclude.  In  a  few  years 
it  also  led  to  some  scandalous  doings  involving  the  Metro- 
politan Company  which  led  up  to  the  gates  of  a  prison  and 
ought  to  have  penetrated  them.  Of  that  I  shall  speak  later. 
Mr.  Hammerstein's  administration  gave  fewer  instances  of 
such  exploiting  of  the  public  than  did  that  of  his  rivals,  but 
the  reason  might  be  found,  probably,  in  the  fact  that  he  was 
not  blessed  by  so  large  a  list  of  subscribers  that  the  general 
public  looked  upon  the  opportunity  to  enjoy  the  first  night 
of  a  novelty  as  a  gracious  benison.  Besides  he  had  Phila- 
delphia on  his  hands.  His  double-headed  enterprise  had 
reached  such  a  stage  of  forwardness  when  he  put  forth  his 
first  extended  announcement  of  the  season  that  his  new 
opera  house  was  building  and  his  companies  engaged. 


g6  THUNDERING  IN  THE  INDEX 

In  June,  1908,  he  informed  the  public  through  the  news- 
papers that  the  New  York  and  Philadelphia  houses  were  to 
be  separate  and  distinct  establishments  so  far  as  orchestra, 
chorus,  ballet,  and  working  personnel  were  concerned  but 
would  be  united  in  "  jubilee  "  performances  in  both  cities 
"  the  like  of  which  had  never  been  attempted  in  any  part  of 
the  world."  He  had  retained  Cleofonte  Campanini  as  con- 
ductor for  New  York  and  engaged  Signer  Sturani,  of 
Rome,  as  conductor  for  Philadelphia.  Hii  principal  singers 
were  to  be  Mmes.  Melba,  Tetrazzini,  Maria  Labia,  Doria, 
Mariska  Aldrich,  Gerville-Reache,  Garden,  Agostinelli, 
Zepilli,  Trentini,  Penzano,  and  Severina,  and  Messrs.  Zena- 
tello,  Dalmores,  Renaud,  Sammarco,  Gilibert,  Dufranne, 
and  Arimondi,  the  majority  of  them  known,  and  some 
of  them  greatly  and  deservedly  admired  by  the  New  York 
public.  "  Taking  great  pleasure  in  coming  into  conflict  with 
traditions  in  grand  opera,"  he  announced  with  a  flourish 
his  intention  to  introduce  a  novelty  which  had  "  never 
before  been  tried  anywhere,"  namely,  "  grand  opera  panto- 
mime," which  was  to  take  the  place  of  ballets  when  short 
operas  were  given.  He  had  discovered  the  authors  of  such 
pantomimes  and  purposed  to  lift  them  and  the  art-form  out 
of  the  obscurity  which  had  thitherto  surrounded  them. 
"  Salome  "  was  to  be  produced  in  a  "  chaste,  sublime,  and 
impressive  manner."  He  had  purchased  35,000  yards  of 
canvas  for  scenery  in  Glasgow  and  before  July  i  would  set 
three  hundred  costume-makers  at  work  on  his  theatrical 
wardrobe.  His  weekly  salary-list  in  the  two  houses  was  to 
exceed  $75,000.  I  do  not  set  forth  these  things  because  I 
think  them  diverting,  but  because  they  comport  with  my 
purpose  to  show  a  picture  of  the  times.  Had  Mr.  Ham- 
merstein  not  been  humored  in  the  belief  that  such  circus 
"  touting  "  was  tolerable  to  the  public,  he  would  not  have 
indulged  it.  Had  the  newspapers  not  had  an  equally  poor 
opinion  of  the  intelligence  and  taste  of  their  readers  they 
would  not  have  printed  it  without  commenting  on  its  vulgar 


THIRD  SEASON  AT  THE  MANHATTAN  9? 

grandiloquence.  It  was  really  for  their  benefit  that  the  tone 
was  adopted,  for  when  Mr.  Hammerstein  issued  his  official 
prospectus  it  was  found  to  contain  nothing  of  this  fulminant 
fanfaronnade ;  its  proclamations  were  succinct  and  digni- 
fied. Decorum  marked  even  his  promises  touching  the 
ballet  pantomimes ;  but  when  Mile.  Odette  Valery,  a  dancer 
who  was  to  be  the  wonderful  interpreter  of  the  wonderful 
works  with  which  he  was  to  amaze  the  town,  arrived  in 
New  York  the  newspapers  entertained  their  readers  with 
an  account  of  the  two  cobras  and  an  asp  which  were  booked 
to  make  their  first  appearance  with  the  lady  in  "  Samson 
et  Dalila."  The  dancer  did  make  a  show  of  the  snakes,  I 
believe,  in  a  few  performances,  but  nothing  more  was  heard 
of  the  pantomimes. 

In  his  prospectus  Mr.  Hammerstein  specifically  promised 
to  produce  "  Samson  et  Dalila  "  by  Saint-Saens,  "  Salome  " 
by  Richard  Strauss,  "  Le  Jongleur  de  Notre  Dame  "  and 
"  Griselidis  "  by  Massenet,  and  "  Princesse  d'Auberge  "  by 
Jan  Blockx.  He  brought  all  of  them  out  except  "  Griselidis." 
In  the  list  which  he  was  less  specifically  bound  to  perform 
were  Massenet's  "  Manon,"  Bizet's  "  Les  Pecheurs  de 
Perles,"  Verdi's  "  Falstaff,"  Breton's  "  Dolores,"  Giordano's 
"Andrea  Chenier  "  and  "  Siberia,"  Donizetti's  "  Linda  di 
Chamounix,"  Verdi's  "  Un  Ballo  in  Maschera  "  and  "  Er- 
nani,"  all  of  which  fell  by  the  board.  The  chief  features  of 
interest  were  the  novelties  and  the  singing  of  Mme.  Melba 
in  "  La  Boheme,"  "  Otello,"  and  "  Rigoletto  "  between  De- 
cember 14  and  January  n,  which  was  the  period  of  her 
engagement.  In  Mr.  Hammerstein's  preceding  seasons 
the  chief  deficiency  in  his  forces  was  in  the  women's  con- 
tingent. This  was  measurably  made  good  by  the  presence  in 
the  new  company  of  Mile.  Labia,  who  effected  her  Ameri- 
can debut  on  the  opening  night  in  "  Tosca."  The  lady  had 
not  only  youth  fulness  and  loveliness  of  form  and  feature 
to  commend  her,  but  also  youth  fulness  and  loveliness  of 


98  "LE  JONGLEUR  DE  NOTRE  DAME" 

voice  and  a  fine  complement  of  dramatic  talent.  Her  facial 
expressions,  movements,  gestures,  and  poses  all  published  a 
vitality  which  made  one  harmony  with  her  vibrant  vocal 
expression.  There  was  fine  metal  in  her  voice  and  much 
emotional  color.  In  quality  it  reminded  me  frequently  of 
Calve's  voice  when  it  was  in  its  prime,  especially  in  the 
higher  register,  and  it  was  given  out  with  greater  sponta- 
neity. A  production  of  historical  interest  was  that  of 
"  Samson  et  Dalila"  on  November  13.  The  music  of  this 
opera  was  familiar  to  the  New  York  public  from  frequent 
performances  in  concert  style  since  its  first  production  six- 
teen years  before  by  the  Oratorio  Society.  Once  within  this 
period  an  attempt  had  been  made  to  give  it  dramatic  rep- 
resentation. This  was  on  February  8,  1895,  when  it  was 
brought  forward  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  for  the 
purpose  of  displaying  the  physical  and  vocal  strenuousness 
of  Signer  Tamagno.  There  were  hopes  then  that  the  opera 
might  be  added  to  the  repertory  of  the  lyric  playhouse  in 
Broadway,  but  they  went  down  with  the  ruins  of  Dagon's 
temple  in  the  last  act.  Mr.  Hammerstein's  performance 
showed  that,  despite  the  predominantly  oratorio  character 
of  much  of  its  music,  the  work  has  considerable  dramatic 
vitality,  and  since  its  revival  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House  in  the  season  1915-16  it  has  remained  in  the  effective 
repertory  of  that  establishment,  though  largely  through  the 
agency  of  Signer  Caruso. 

The  first  real  novelty  of  the  season  was  "  Le  Jongleur  de 
Notre  Dame,"  which  had  its  first  performance  in  America 
on  November  27,  1908,  with  the  following  distribution  of 
parts : 

Jean,  the  Juggler   Mary  Garden 

Boniface,  the  Cook  Maurice  Renaud 

The   Prior    Hector  Dufranne 

The  Poet  Louis  Vallez 

The  Painter Andrea  de  Segurola 

The  Sculptor M.  Vieulle 

The  Musician   .    Armand  Crabbe 


ENGAGEMENT  OF  LINA  CAVALIERI  99 

The  old  tradition  of  the  monk  who  in  his  youth  had  been 
a  juggler  and  who,  while  his  artistic  companions  were  prac- 
tising their  arts  within  the  walls  of  the  monastery,  sought 
to  do  honor  to  the  Virgin  Mother  by  performing  his  mounte- 
bank tricks  in  secret  before  her  altar,  was  put  into  shape 
for  M.  Massenet  by  Maurice  Lena.  It  is  a  quaint  and  lov- 
able tale.  The  mixture  of  devotion  and  the  arts  charac- 
teristic of  the  monastic  life  of  the  Middle  Ages  provided 
an  unusual  but  nevertheless  inviting  background  for  an 
opera.  Its  obvious  drawback  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  afforded 
no  opportunity  for  the  introduction  of  the  female  voice,  for 
there  was  no  way  in  which  the  element  of  love  between 
man  and  woman,  which  has  been  the  most  pervasive  motive 
for  dramatic  writing  since. the  art  began,  could  be  intro- 
duced into  it  without  spoiling  the  tale.  For  Miss  Garden's 
sake,  we  were  told  (though  I  am  still  skeptical  on  the  point), 
M.  Massenet  rewrote  the  part  of  Jean.  The  device  might 
have  added  a  desirable  variety  to  the  music  had  it  been 
entrusted  for  execution  to  a  better  singer  than  Miss  Garden, 
or  an  actress  more  imbued  with  a  sense  of  the  ingenuous 
pathos  of  the  story.  Under  the  circumstances  of  the  per- 
formances I  could  but  regret  the  change.  The  affecting 
note  of  sincerity  which  provides  a  potent  charm  in  the 
mediaeval  tale  was  turned  into  a  dissonant  note  by  the  lady's 
silly  by-play  during  M.  Renaud's  touching  recital  of  the 
legend  of  the  sage-bush,  which  is  one  of  the  gems  of  the 
score.  The  first  impression  created  in  me  by  the  music  was 
that  it  was  more  ingenious  than  inspired.  It  suggested  an 
exaggerated  eclecticism  ranging  from  the  modern  French 
to  the  ancient  ecclesiastical  styles,  with  somewhat  abrupt 
transitions  from  one  style  to  the  other. 

On  January  19,  1909,  Mr.  Hammerstein  informed  the 
public  through  the  newspapers  that  he  had  engaged  Lina 
Cavalieri  for  his  company.  The  lady,  better  endowed  with 
physical  charms  than  artistic,  had  been  a  member  of  the 
Metropolitan  company  in  the  previous  season  and  was  now 


ioo  MISS  GARDEN  WILL  BROOK  NO  RIVAL 

conducting  a  "  beauty  shop  "  in  Fifth  Avenue.  "  Salome  " 
was  in  preparation  at  the  Manhattan  and  its  production  was 
expected  within  ten  days.  Mr.  Hammerstein  said  that  he 
could  not  expect  more  from  Miss  Garden  than  the  perform- 
ances of  "  Salome  "  and  "  Pelleas  et  Melisande  "  for  several 
weeks,  and  that  he  had  enlisted  Miss  Cavalieri's  services 
especially  for  "  Thais,"  an  opera  which  had  become  popular 
and  which  he  wanted  to  keep  in  his  list.  Thereby  he  opened 
another  chapter  in  New  York's  Operatic  Book  of  Scandal. 
Miss  Garden  at  once  made  a  vigorous  protest  against  the 
assignment  to  Miss  Cavalieri  of  a  part  which  she  had  cre- 
ated in  America.  Both  singers  had  appeared  in  the  opera 
in  Paris,  Miss  Cavalieri  having  been  the  heroine  at  its  most 
recent  revival  there ;  but  Miss  Garden,  who  was  born  in 
Scotland  and  brought  up  in  the  United  States,  was  of  the 
opinion  that  an  Italian  lady  brought  up  in  Europe  could  not 
properly  represent  a  courtesan  of  ancient  Alexandria  as 
conceived  by  a  group  of  French  authors.  Miss  Garden 
therefore  promptly  hired  a  lawyer  to  protect  her  monopoly 
of  the  privilege  of  displaying  her  physical  charms  with  the 
scantiest  garments  allowable  to  the  public  gaze.  Mr.  Ham- 
merstein had  covenanted  with  Miss  Cavalieri  (and  the  pub- 
lic by  announcement)  that  the  inestimable  privilege  should 
be  Miss  Cavalieri's  also ;  but  the  contract  proved  to  be  in  a 
double  sense  nudum  pactitm.  Miss  Garden  had  her  lawyer; 
Mr.  Hammerstein  a  press  agent.  The  case  was  taken  to  that 
public  forum,  the  newspapers.  Miss  Garden  served  notice 
on  her  manager  that  she  had  summarily  severed  her  con- 
nection with  his  company.  The  manager  capitulated  with- 
out more  ado.  Miss  Cavalieri  asked  that  the  opera  be 
stricken  from  her  list  in  a  letter  which  was  printed  on  the 
morning  of  the  day  when  the  opera  was  repeated  with  Miss 
Garden  in  the  character  of  the  Alexandrian  woman  who  had 
lived  a  life  of  harlotry  and  died  the  death  of  a  saint.  She 
renewed  her  contract  with  Mr.  Hammerstein,  who  agreed 
that  thenceforth  as  long  as  she  was  engaged  by  him  no  one 


PRESUMPTION  OF  CARMEN  MELIS  REBUKED      101 

but  she  should  appear  at  his  performances  in  any  new 
character  which  she  had  created  except  with  her  consent  in 
writing.  Both  ladies  were  engaged  for  the  next  season, 
when  Miss  Cavalieri  had  an  opportunity  to  enact  the  part 
of  Massenet's  Salome  in  "  Herodiade,"  a  woman  of  a 
different  type  than  that  conceived  by  Richard  Strauss  and 
begotten  by  Oscar  Wilde.  The  season  was  less  than  a  month 
old,  however,  when  another  aspirant  for  the  mingled  roses 
and  penitential  weeds  of  Anatole  France's  heroine  appeared 
on  the  scene.  This  was  Miss  Carmen  Melis  (whose  name 
should  have  justified  her  art),  who  said  that  she  wanted  to 
show  what  she  could  do  with  Thais  and  could  not  see  why 
the  part  should  be  held  in  trust  by  any  singer.  Miss  Garden 
disposed  of  the  presumptuous  newcomer  in  short  order  by 
informing  Mr.  Hammerstein  (of  course,  through  that  favor- 
ite medium  of  communication  between  artists  and  managers, 
the  newspapers)  that  the  moment  any  singer  other  than  she 
sang  the  part  she  would  walk  out  of  the  theater.  The  opera 
was  sung  six  times  in  1909-10,  but  Miss  Garden  remained 
the  only  Thais  known  to  New  York  until  April  25,  1912, 
when  Mme.  Lavarenne  appeared  in  the  part  in  the  Lyric 
Theater  at  a  performance  by  the  New  Orleans  Opera  Com- 
pany. Miss  Farrar  threw  her  garments  into  the  ring  at 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  on  February  16,  1917.  Once 
again  in  this  season  Mr.  Hammerstein  tempted  the  fates  as 
embodied  in  the  redoubtable  Scottish  woman.  He  asked 
her  permission  to  perform  "  Le  Jongleur  de  Notre  Dame  " 
in  its  original  form — that  is,  with  a  man-singer  in  the  part 
of  Jean.  She  gave  her  consent  and  even  said  that  she  would 
buy  a  box  and  witness  the  performance ;  but  whe.i  Mr. 
Devries  made  a  success  in  the  part  Miss  Garden  exacted 
and  obtained  an  apology  from  her  manager. 

In  the  moment  of  Miss  Garden's  triumph  in  the  "  Thais  " 
affair  members  of  the  journalistic  areopagus  became 
involved  in  the  quarrel.  The  story  had  gone  out  among  the 
gossips  of  the  press  that  Mr.  Hammerstein  had  been  paid 


102  MANAGERS  AND  JOURNALISTS  FIGHT 

to  offer  the  delectable  privilege  in  controversy  to  Miss  Cava- 
lieri.  The  New  York  Press  newspaper  sent  two  reporters 
to  the  manager,  who  asked  if  the  story  was  true.  Mr. 
Hammerstein  ejected  them  from  his  office  and  held  lan- 
guage in  a  letter  to  the  managing  editor  of  the  paper  which 
was  highly  reprehensible  in  him  and  highly  derogatory  to 
the  reporters.  Thereupon  the  two  reporters,  accompanied 
by  their  managing  editor,  sought  Mr.  Hammerstein  in  upper 
Broadway,  and,  coming  upon  him  as  he  was  leaving  the 
Knickerbocker  Hotel,  demanded  an  apology.  He  refused  to 
make  it,  and  they  fell  upon  him,  smote  him  with  their  fists, 
vi  et  armis  landing  several  blows  upon  his  body.  For  this 
Mr.  Hammerstein  caused  their  arrest  on  a  criminal  charge. 
The  next  day  there  were  two  physical  collisions  between 
the  newspaper-men  and  Mr.  Arthur  Hammerstein,  who  had 
been  challenged  to  a  trial  at  fisticuffs  by  the  manager  editor 
and  had  accepted  the  gage  as  the  champion  of  his  father. 
The  first  violent  meeting  took  place  outside  the  police  court 
at  which  the  criminal  charge  was  to  be  tried ;  the  second 
within  its  walls.  The  laws  of  the  State  of  New  York  and 
the  dignity  of  the  tribunal  had  been  shockingly  violated,  but 
no  punishment  was  meted  out.  The  criminal  causes  and 
an  action  for  damages  begun  by  the  musical  critic  of  the 
newspaper  dribbled  along  until  they  were  lost  in  the 
sands  of  time.  And  Miss  Garden  and  Miss  Cavalieri 
both  signed  contracts  with  Mr.  Hammerstein  for  the  next 
season. 

On  January  28,  1909,  in  the  midst  of  the  painful  perturba- 
tions which  I  have  recorded,  "  Salome  "  was  produced  in  a 
French  version  at  the  Manhattan  Opera  House  and  Miss 
Garden  had  an  opportunity  to  divest  herself  of  her  clothing 
piecemeal  in  the  presence  of  a  public  with  a  well-whetted 
curiosity.  The  story  of  the  first  production  of  the  opera  at 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  and  its  suppression  at  the 
command  of  the  directors  of  the  owners  of  that  institution 
in  the  season  of  1906-07  is  fully  told  in  my  book  "  Chapters 


"SALOME"  AT  THE  MANHATTAN  103 

of  Opera."  Had  the  original  production  been  spared  the 
interference  of  the  Metropolitan  directors,  the  question  of 
the  attitude  of  New  York's  music  lovers  toward  the  work 
would  soon  have  been  settled  and  the  public  been  spared 
Mr.  Hammerstein's  revamping  of  the  unsavory  mess.  It 
was  no  secret  in  January,  1907,  among  those  familiar  with 
operatic  affairs  that  a  failure  of  the  drama  was  presaged  by 
the  small  sale  of  seats  for  the  representations  projected  by 
Mr.  Conried  and  diligently  kept  before  the  public  while  the 
controversy  between  Mr.  Conried  and  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  and  Real  Estate  Company  was  raging.  It  is  very 
likely  that  the  astute  Mr.  Hammerstein  saw  the  handwriting 
on  the  wall  at  the  time,  for  three  or  four  days  after  the 
work  had  been  performed,  and  while  the  question  of  its 
withdrawal  was  still  pending,  he  told  me  that  he  had  de- 
clined to  purchase  the  performing  rights  in  the  preceding 
summer,  partly  on  the  advice  of  Mme.  Lilli  Lehmann,  and 
that  he  was  glad  he  had  done  so ;  adding  that  he  would  not 
produce  "  Salome "  even  if  Mr.  Conried  surrendered  the 
performing  rights.  The  reason  of  his  subsequent  change  of 
mind  is  not  far  to  seek,  nor  need  we  attach  any  more  impor- 
tance to  his  broken  purpose  than  Jove  is  said  to  do  to 
lovers'  perjuries.  Mr.  Hammerstein  would  not  have  thought 
of  producing  "  Salome  "  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  oppor- 
tunity which  it  gave  for  that  association  to  which  most  that 
made  appeal  to  his  public  was  due.  The  curiosity  which 
was  potent  enough  to  fill  his  theater  at  doubled  prices  of 
admission  was  directed  not  to  the  play  of  Wilde,  not  to  the 
musical  investiture  of  that  play  by  Richard  Strauss,  but  to 
Mary  Garden,  and  to  her  chiefly  because  of  the  lascivious 
dance.  Mr.  Conried  had  felt  the  public  pulse  and  renounced 
his  project  with  but  little  show  of  unwillingness.  There 
was  talk  by  him  and  the  directors  of  his  company  of  trans- 
ferring the  performance  to  another  theater ;  but  it  dribbled 
away.  So  did  the  proclaimed  purpose  to  give  it  "  on  the 
road."  So  did  the  announced  intention  to  give  a  long  series 


104  HAMMERSTEIN  AND  STRAUSS'S  OPERA 

of  representations  before  the  subscription  season  of  1907-08. 
Mr.  Conried  surrendered  his  rights  in  the  drama  at  what 
must  have  been  a  large  pecuniary  sacrifice;  and  within  a 
year  or  so  Mr.  Hammerstein  acquired  them. 

Why?  After  his  own  utterances  on  the  subject  I  can 
not  believe  that  he  had  become  convinced  that  the  with- 
drawal of  the  work  from  the  repertory  of  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  had  left  the  public  hungering  with  so  con- 
suming a  hunger  that  to  satisfy  it  was  either  an  artistic  duty 
or  a  promising  financial  enterprise.  No.  A  new  factor  had 
entered  into  the  proposition.  Miss  Garden  wanted  to  be  seen 
in  the  titular  role,  convinced  that  by  her  acting,  dancing, 
and  disrobing  she  could  achieve  the  success  which  had  not 
looked  with  propitious  eye  upon  the  first  production.  More- 
over, Miss  Garden's  vision  was  not  directed  upon  New  York 
alone.  Paris  had  welcomed  Miss  Fremstad's  moving  dra- 
matic impersonation  and  hailed  her  interpretation  of  the 
music  with  delight.  Even  if  Miss  Garden  could  not  hope  to 
cope  with  Miss  Fremstad's  singing,  she  could  outdo  her 
acting  if  she  were  to  do  the  dance  of  the  seven  veils  herself 
and  not  by  proxy,  as  Miss  Fremstad  had  done  it,  and  thus 
throw  a  shamelessly  generous  exhibition  of  her  body  into 
the  balance.  Miss  Garden  could  not  sing  in  German,  how- 
ever, nor  could  any  of  her  associates  at  the  Manhattan 
Opera  House.  So  the  project  was  evolved  of  performing 
the  drama  in  French,  a  proceeding  which  did  not  seem  very 
revolutionary,  since  Oscar  Wilde  had  originally  written 
"  Salome  "  in  that  language,  and  the  English  version,  which 
had  failed  to  gain  a  foothold  in  Great  Britain  and  America, 
and  the  German,  which  had  ravaged  Germany,  were  both 
translations.  Paris  heard  "  Salome  "  in  German ;  New  York 
was  the  first  city  in  the  world  to  hear  it  in  French. 

This  sounds  somewhat  paradoxical  and  perverse;  but 
perversion  is  the  theme  of  "  Salome "  in  all  its  elements 
and  to  discuss  it  anew  because  of  one  added  aspect  would 
scarcely  be  worth  while.  Nor  is  there  much  need  of  dis- 


A  FIRST  PERFORMANCE  IN  FRENCH  105 

cussion  of  the  effect  of  a  French  text  upon  the  music.  By 
the  composer's  own  confession,  words  and  the  human  voice 
were  tolerated  by  him  only  as  necessary  evils.  Against  his 
will  was  he  compelled  to  consort  with  the  earth-born  bab- 
blers of  articulate  speech.  Naturally  there  was  one  view- 
point from  which  the  association  of  such  music  as  this  with 
the  French  language  seemed  anomalous.  Elegance  of 
expression  is  inherent  in  all  forms  of  French  art ;  dramatic 
truthfulness  and  vigor,  sometimes  to  the  verge  of  uncouth- 
ness,  of  German.  The  nervous  chatter  of  Burrian's  German 
Herod  was  much  more  characteristic  of  the  neurasthenic 
created  by  Strauss  than  was  the  better  cadenced  and  more 
or  less  tuneful  singing  of  Dalmores's  Tetrarch.  But  this 
was  largely  a  matter  of  interpretation.  The  French  artist 
would  not  miss  an  opportunity  to  sing  a  phrase  if  it  offered 
itself ;  the  German  was  willing  to  sacrifice  everything  to 
an  illumination  of  the  pathological  nature  of  Herod's  pitiful 
case.  As  for  the  preachments  and  denunciations  of  Joa- 
chanan,  in  which  is  contained  the  bulk  of  the  sustained  mu- 
sic of  the  score  except  the  final  beatification  of  the  necroph- 
ilism  of  the  unspeakable  Salome,  they  did  not  seem  to  be 
either  helped  or  hindered  by  the  change  of  tongue.  The 
stage-set  was  beautiful,  though  the  picture  was  marred  by 
incongruities  and  anachronisms  such  as  the  introduction  of 
the  familiar  winged  bull  of  Assyria  into  Herod's  palace. 
The  light  effects  were  of  great  beauty  and  the  people  of  the 
play  magnificently  caparisoned.  The  color  scheme  was  more 
garish  than  in  Mr.  Conried's  production  and  there  was  more 
than  a  suggestion  of  barbarism  in  the  habiliments  of  Herod, 
but  these  high  lights  only  served  to  accentuate  the  beauty 
of  Miss  Garden's  person  and  raiment.  Of  the  latter,  how- 
ever, there  was  very  little,  and  in  the  climax  of  the  dance 
the  utmost  limit  of  disrobing  ever  reached  by  a  lyric  artist 
or  actress  within  a  long  memory  was  attained.  To  have 
thrown  off  any  more  in  emulation  of  Istar  she  would  have 
been  all  but  obliged  to  doff  her  cuticle. 


io6  WITHDRAWAL  OF  THE  OPERA 

For  the  sake  of  history  the  story  of  the  opera's  career 
outside  of  New  York  may  be  briefly  rehearsed.  Mr.  Ham- 
merstein  announced  it  in  his  prospectuses  for  Philadelphia 
and  Boston.  In  the  former  city  the  Methodist  and  Baptist 
clergymen  made  an  energetic  protest.  The  Presbyterians 
followed  on  the  eve  of  the  opening  of  the  opera  house, 
adopting  a  preamble  and  resolutions  which  described  the 
work  as  "  a  realistic  portrayal  of  the  immoral  motives  that 
resulted  in  the  bloody  tragedy  of  John  the  Baptist "  and 
"  inconsistent  with  that  sacred  reverence  which  all  Chris- 
tians cherish  for  that  godly  man."  Committees  of  the 
Christian  League  and  the  State  and  County  Federation  of 
Catholic  Societies  sent  a  letter  to  the  mayor  of  the  city  on 
the  day  before  that  set  for  the  performance.  The  mayor 
not  only  declined  to  interfere,  but  was  chairman  of  a  com- 
mittee of  citizens  who  gave  a  complimentary  dinner  to  Mr. 
Hammerstein  on  the  evening  of  the  day.  The  manager 
announced  that  he  would  produce  "  Salome,"  and  his  pur- 
pose was  applauded.  A  week  later  he  announced  that  the 
last  performance  would  be  on  March  i.  He  did  not  dare 
longer  withstand  the  undercurrent  of  dissent  among  his 
subscribers.  In  Boston  the  presentation  of  the  opera  was 
opposed  by  Eben  S.  Draper,  Governor  of  Massachusetts ; 
George  A.  Hibbard,  mayor  of  the  city ;  Bishop  Lawrence 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Vicar-General  George 
J.  Patterson  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  George  A. 
Gordon  of  the  Trinitarian  body,  ex-Governor  Curtis  Guild, 
and  other  prominent  citizens.  The  representatives  of  the 
churches  were  especially  indignant  because  the  date  of  the 
projected  performance  had  been  set  in  Holy  Week.  Ham- 
merstein withdrew  the  opera. 

The  last  novelty  heard  in  New  York  in  the  season  1908-09 
was  "  La  Princesse  d'Auberge,"  which  Mr.  Hammerstein 
brought  forward  on  March  10,  1909,  with  the  parts  dis- 
tributed among  his  singers  as  follows : 


A  FLEMISH  OPERA  PRODUCED  107 

Rita,  a  tavern-keeper's  daughter   Mile.  Labia 

Katelyne,  a  widow  and  shopkeeper   Gerville-Reache 

Reinilde,  her  adopted  daughter   Mile.  Zepilli 

Merlyn,  a  young  composer  of  music  M.  Valles 

Marcus,  a  fellow-musician  M.  Crabbe 

Bluta,  father  of  Rita  and  a  tavern-keeper  M.  Gilibert 

Raino,   a  blacksmith    M.    Dufranne 

fMiss  Koelling 
Rita's  sisters  4  Miss  Tancredi 

I  Miss  Severina 

A  student  Sig.  Venturini 

An  old  peasant Sig.  Reschiligian 

A  young  peasant  Sig..  Daddi 

An  old  servant  Miss  Hume 

A  citizen  Sig.  Fosetta 

Conductor,  Sig.  Campanini 


The  opera,  which  was  sung  in  French,  was  originally 
written  in  Flemish,  and  its  authors,  Nestor  de  Tiere  and 
Jan  Blockx  (who  died  in  1912),  were  enthusiastic  Flamands 
who  strove  to  keep  alive  a  native  expression  among  their 
countrymen  in  the  Netherlands.  They  did  not  find  it  an 
easy  task,  for,  besides  Flemish,  the  inhabitants  of  what  once 
was  Flanders,  speak  French,  Walloon,  and  Dutch.  French 
art  has  long  pervaded  the  culture  of  the  country,  but  the 
Teutonism  of  the  Flamands  is  strong  and  continues  to  be  in 
rebellion,  though  peacefully,  with  Southern  ideals — peace- 
fully yet  puissantly  enough  to  preserve  many  idioms  as  well 
as  customs  and  manners.  It  is  possible  for  a  student  of 
folk-music,  who  is  keen  on  the  scent  of  racial  and  popular 
idioms,  to  find  Flemish  traces  in  the  opera,  though  it  is 
necessary  that  his  curiosity  be  piqued  and  his  perceptions 
sharpened  in  advance  by  the  discovery  that  the  music  does 
not  sound  French.  Some  ten  years  before  this  American 
production  the  opera  had  been  performed  at  the  Flemish 
Theater  in  Antwerp,  in  a  few  cities  of  Holland,  and  after- 
ward (in  French)  in  Brussels;  but  its  success  was  local 
and  no  greater  than  that  of  scores  of  contemporaneous 
French,  German,  and  Italian  operas  which  promptly  found 


108  "LA  PRINCESSE  D'AUBERGE" 

their  way  into  the  limbo  of  forgotten  things.  In  the  search 
for  attributes  which  promise  to  bring  success  works  which 
contain  national  traits  are  now  receiving  unusual  attention 
from  managers,  and  to  this  tendency  the  great  world  war 
will  doubtless  give  a  new  impetus.  Picturesquehess  of  scene 
and  attractiveness  of  musical  color  frequently  atone  for  lack 
of  depth  and  beauty  of  musical  thought  or  melodic  inven- 
tion. New  York  has  been  privileged  to  enjoy  much  opera 
of  this  character  in  recent  years :  witness  the  Japanese 
pictures  and  music  of  "  Iris  "  and  "  Madama  Butterfly  " ; 
the  Russian  of  "  Siberia,"  "  Boris  Godounow,"  and  "  Prince 
Igor  " ;  the  mixed  Polish  and  gypsy  of  Mr.  Paderewski's 
"  Manru  " ;  the  Spanish  of  "  Carmen  "  and  "  La  Navar- 
raise  " ;  the  Italian  of  "  Pagliacci,"  "  Cavalleria  Rusticana," 
and  "  A  Basso  Porto."  "  Princesse  d'Auberge,"  following 
the  dramatic  lines  of  the  three  operas  last  mentioned,  deals 
with  a  story  of  Belgian  low  life.  It  tells  of  the  moral  and 
physical  ruin  wrought  in  a  man  of  fine  intellectual  fiber  by 
association  with  vicious  and  vulgar  companions  and  surren- 
der to  debasing  appetites.  Retribution  comes  through  crime 
instigated  by  jealous  passion.  The  cause  of  the  moral  devas- 
tation and  the  physical  suffering  which  overwhelm  the  sweet 
and  innocent  with  the  base  and  guilty  is  a  wanton  whc 
traffics  with  her  charms  to  promote  the  business  of  a  disso- 
lute innkeeper.  Incidental  to  the  exposition  of  the  story 
there  is  an  opulent  procession  of  scenes  from  the  life  of  a 
city  famous  for  its  roystering  gaiety  whenever  occasion 
invites  its  populace  into  its  beautiful  public  places  and 
streets.  The  city  is  Brussels,  the  time  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  tragic  hero  of  the  vulgar  tragedy 
is  Merlyn,  poet  and  musician.  The  woman  who  wrecks  his 
soul  and  body  is  Rita,  whose  beauty  and  popularity  among 
the  students  and  gay  roysterers  of  the  city  have  given  her 
the  name  by  which  the  opera  is  designated.  The  fateful 
agent  of  the  hero's  destruction  is  Rabo,  a  blacksmith,  who 
had  once  enjoyed  the  embraces  of  Rita  but  had  been  cast 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  OPERA          109 

off  in  favor  of  the  artist.  The  innocent  sufferers  are  Kate- 
line,  the  mother  of  Merlyn,  and  Reinilde,  a  pure  maiden 
who  loves  him  and  seeks  in  vain  to  win  him  from  his  dis- 
solute companionship  so  that  he  may  be  true  in  service  to 
his  art.  Secondary  to  Rabo  as  a  vehicle  of  fate  is  Marcus, 
also  a  musician,  and  friend  of  Merlyn,  who  is  enamored 
of  Reinilde  and  who  to  win  her  for  himself  contrives  to 
throw  his  friend  into  the  toils  of  the  wanton.  There  are 
other  characters  in  the  play  who  serve  purposes  not  essen- 
tial to  the  story,  but  externally  useful — the  dissolute  father 
of  the  siren,  who  provides  the  comedy  found  in  the  antics 
of  a  drunkard,  and  his  three  other  daughters  who,  with 
inferior  charms  but  equal  looseness,  help  Rita  carry  on  the 
trade  of  the  inn.  The  posture  of  the  people  of  the  play 
being  thus  set  forth;  the  incidents  present  themselves  to  the 
imagination  almost  involuntarily.  In  spite  of  the  prompt- 
ings of  his  good  genius,  the  prayers  of  his  mother  and 
sweetheart,  the  artist  fails  to  tear  himself  away  from  his 
Circe.  Then  comes  retribution  in  the  shape  of  his  jealous 
rival,  who  provokes  a  quarrel  by  denouncing  her  who  had 
been  his  bawd,  and  in  the  duel  which  ensues  stabs  him  to 
death.  As  he  breathes  his  last,  mother  and  sweetheart 
enter  to  proclaim  the  news  that  success  had  crowned  the 
musician's  effort  to  win  the  national  laurel.  Maddened  by 
grief  and  rage,  the  pure  maiden  is  about  to  plunge  a  knife 
into  the  profligate  woman's  heart,  but  lets  it  fall  and  leaves 
her  to  the  tortures  of  her  conscience. 

And  now  for  the  Flemish  elements  of  the  work.  Of  what 
do  they  consist?  The  story  might  be  located  anywhere  in 
civilized  Christendom  and  its  people  found  there.  Not  so 
the  scenes.  An  excellent  and  characteristic  environment  for 
the  play  had  been  provided.  There  are  four  stage-settings 
and  every  one  of  them  was  sumptuous  and  historically  and 
technically  correct.  These  pictures  might,  of  course,  be 
introduced  in  an  opera  with  French,  German,  or  Italian 
investiture ;  but  they  become  doubly  effective  when  viewed 


i  io  APPLICATION  OF  LOCAL  COLOR 

through  the  atmosphere  created  by  Flemish  music.  This 
music  is  recognizable  first  of  all,  perhaps,  in  the  large  admix- 
ture of  bell  chimes  in  all  the  concerted  pieces  which  inspire 
the  popular  scenes.  When  Dr.  Burney  in  his  memorable 
tour  through  Europe  reached  Antwerp  he  descanted  first  of 
all  on  the  passion  for  carillons  prevalent  in  the  Netherlands. 
When  he  got  to  Amsterdam  he  lamented  the  lack  of  all 
music  except  "  the  jingling  of  bells  and  ducats."  The  audi- 
ence on  this  occasion  was  entertained  by  similar  sounds.  It 
was  only  in  the  dialogue  and  the  dramatic  songs  that  the 
ear  was  not  saluted  by  the  imitation  of  bell  chimes  from  the 
orchestra.  In  the  last  act  national  idioms  again  had  expres- 
sion in  the  direct  and  literal  quotation  of  a  Flemish  song 
(written  by  Prudens  van  Duyse),  which  must  have  amused 
the  hunters  of  melodic  parallels.  It  is  a  splendid  specimen 
of  tune  written  in  the  simple  folksong  manner,  but  in  its 
first  period  there  is  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  famous 
political  song  of  the  Netherlanders,  "  Wilhelmus  von  Nas- 
sauen,"  and  in  the  second  to  an  American  Sunday-school 
hymn  ("I'm  a  Pilgrim"),  a  parody  of  which  has  long 
afforded  amusement  to  college  students  in  this  country. 
Musical  nationalism  was  discernible  to  the  more  sophisti- 
cated minds  also  in  most  of  the  choruses,  in  which  the  opera 
is  singularly  rich.  Though  they  moved  in  dance  rhythms, 
there  was  a  sturdiness  in  their  melody  which  published  a 
Teutonic  rather  than  the  Gallic  spirit.  Also  a  soundness 
coupled  with  elaborateness  of  structure  not  ordinarily  found 
in  French  operas.  The  composer  makes  use  of  Wagner's 
system  of  typical  phrases  and  the  orchestration  is  frequently 
brilliant. 

When  Mr.  Hammerstein  issued  his  prospectus  for 
1909-10,  which  proved  to  be  his  last  season  as  an  operatic 
impresario,  his  plans  were  not  fully  or  accurately  formu- 
lated. Even  the  date  of  the  opening  was  changed  after- 
ward from  November  15  to  November  8;  but  this  was  for 
the  purpose  of  taking  advantage  of  the  annual  fashionable 


HAMMERSTEIN'S  LAST  SEASON  in 

gathering  for  the  horse  show.  He,  however,  promised 
twenty  weeks,  and,  though  ruin  was  staring  him  in  the  face 
long  before  the  expiration  of  the  term,  he  kept  his  promise 
to  the  letter.  He  published  no  official  list  of  singers,  but 
laid  stress  upon  his  list  of  operas,  putting  forth  the  boast 
that  "  in  the  matter  of  exclusive  rights  of  operas  "  he  stood 
"  unique  among  impresarios  and  directors  of  opera  houses 
in  the  world."  So  far  as  French  operas  and  the  United 
States  were  concerned,  the  claim  was  no  doubt  justified. 
The  Metropolitan  Company  had  been  permitted  to  become 
impotent  in  this  department,  and,  though  in  its  prospectus 
for  the  same  season  it  proclaimed  the  exclusive  ownership 
of  nine  French  operas,  only  two  of  them  have  seen  the  stage 
lights  at  the  Metropolitan.  Three  of  the  nine  were  said  to 
be  operas  by  Claude  Debussy,  and  though  they  have  been 
permitted  to  figure  in  the  announcements  of  Mr.  Gatti  down 
to  the  end  of  the  period  with  which  I  am  particularly  con- 
cerned, they  were  little  more  than  flocculent  dreams  when 
the  composer  died  on  March  26,  1918.  Of  the  operas  for 
which  he  claimed  the  sole  right  of  representation  in  Amer- 
ica, Mr.  Hammerstein  said  they  were  "  the  masterpieces  of 
living  composers,"  though  Offenbach,  who  composed  "  Les 
Contes  d'Hoffmann,"  had  long  been  dead.  But  that  is  unes- 
sential. "  The  novelties  claimed  by  another  institution,"  he 
said,  were  operas  which  he  had  rejected.  Obviously  he  was 
in  a  bellicose  mood.  He  had  acquired  his  novelties  not  by 
excessive  expenditures,  but  by  reason  of  "  the  confidence 
possessed  by  authors  and  composers  in  the  abilities  of  Mr. 
Hammerstein  to  properly  present  their  works."  These  nov- 
elties were  Richard  Strauss's  "  Elektra  "  and  "  Feuersnoth" ; 
Massenet's  "  Herodiade,"  "  Griselidis,"  "  Sapho,"  and 
"  Cendrillon  " ;  Leoncavallo's  "  Zaza  "  ;  Victor  Herbert's 
"  Natoma  "  and  "  The  Violin  Maker  of  Cremona."  The  per- 
forming rights  of  "  Elektra "  he  had  procured  in  Berlin 
three  months  before  the  first  performance  of  the  opera  in 
Dresden  on  January  25,  1909.  A  cabled  report  concerning 


112  "  EDUCATIONAL  OPERA  "  ATTEMPTED 

that  premiere  stated  that  he  had  secured  the  American  rights 
for  $5,000  cash  and  a  guaranteed  royalty  of  $18,000  for 
thirty  performances  in  addition  to  $6,000  for  the  right  of 
reproducing  the  music — a  phrase  which  I  can  not  interpret. 
Nearly  $1,000  a  night  may  not  have  appeared  to  be  an 
excessive  fee  to  Herr  Strauss  when  he  looked  upon  the 
world  as  his  oyster,  but  to  enable  Mr.  Hammerstein  to  pay 
it  New  York  would  have  had  to  be  a  worse  operatic  Bedlam 
than  it  was ;  and  that  it  was  bedlamite  enough  I  have  tried 
to  show.  Deferring  the  announcement  of  the  full  list  of 
singers  engaged,  he  reported  the  re-engagement  of  Mary 
Garden,  Luisa  Tetrazzini,  Mme.  Gerville-Reache,  Augusta 
Doria,  Emma  Trentini,  Lina  Cavalieri,  Charles  Dalmores, 
Maurice  Renaud,  Hector  Dufranne,  Charles  Gilibert,  Gio- 
vanni Zenatello,  Mario  Sammarco,  Florencio  Constantino, 
Armand  Crabbe,  and  Giovanni  Polesi.  The  engagement  of 
John  McCormack  had  been  announced  on  January  4.  His 
former  musical  director,  Cleofonte  Campanini,  having  de- 
parted from  him,  Mr.  Hammerstein  informed  the  public 
that  he  had  relegated  "  the  one-man  conductor  "  system  to 
the  past  and  engaged  six  conductors,  De  la  Fuente,  Anselmi, 
Sturani,  Cartier,  Charlier,  and  Scognamiglio. 

Before  beginning  his  regular  subscription  performances 
Mr.  Hammerstein  opened  the  Manhattan  Opera  House  for 
a  season  of  "  educational  opera,"  as  he  called  it  at  first, 
which  began  on  August  30  and  endured  until  October  30. 
In  this  preliminary  season  he  not  only  made  trial  of  a  con- 
siderable number  of  singers,  some  of  whom  remained  with 
him  throughout  the  regular  season,  but  also  experimented 
with  operas  some  of  which  went  over  into  the  subscription 
repertory  without  any  material  change  either  in  casts  or 
stage-settings,  while  others,  notably  "  Le  Prophete "  and 
"  La  Juive,"  might  well  have  done  so.  In  them  some  singers 
of  notable  excellence  were  heard,  such  as  William  Beck, 
Marguerite  Sylva  and  Zerola,  the  last  a  tenor  whom  he  had 
recruited  from  an  Italian  company  which  began  a  summer 


PROMISES  AND  PERFORMANCES  113 

season  at  the  Academy  of  Music  and  made  the  customary 
shipwreck.  After  the  season  got  under  way,  however,  these 
singers  were  heard  from  chiefly  in  the  newspapers  in  con- 
nection with  the  disaffections  and  disagreements  between 
them  and  the  rival  managers,  Mr.  Hammerstein  and  Signer 
Ferrara.  There  was  downright  value  in  the  experiment  not 
only  as  a  test  of  the  inextinguishable  notion  that  the  public 
is  clamorous  for  opera  at  low  prices,  but  also  as  a  means  of 
giving  singers  with  operatic  aspirations  the  routine  which 
is  denied  them  at  large  houses  in  fashionable  seasons.  The 
operas  performed  in  this  preliminary  season  were  "  Le 
Prophete,"  "Carmen,"  "Lucia,"  "  Traviata,"  "  Aida," 
"  La  Juive,"  "  Rigoletto,"  "  Tosca,"  "  Pagliacci,"  "  Louise," 
"  Faust,"  "  Les  Contes  d'Hoffmann,"  "  Cavalleria  Rusti- 
cana,"  "  Trovatore,"  and  "  The  Bohemian  Girl,"  the  last 
sung  in  the  original  English. 

In  the  season  proper  Mr.  Hammerstein  tried  to  give  opera 
comique  (as  he  politely  termed  it,  though  it  was  largely 
opera  bouffe)  on  Saturday  evenings;  but  the  experiment 
proving  a  failure  he  admitted  the  fact  like  a  brave  man  and 
abandoned  it,  substituting  for  it  grand  opera  at  popular 
prices.  He  came  creditably  near  to  keeping  his  promises 
in  respect  of  novelties.  He  had  said  that  "  Herodiade," 
"  Elektra,"  "  Griselidis,"  and  "  Sapho  "  would  be  among  his 
new  productions,  and  they  were ;  he  also  said  that  "  Cendril- 
lon,"  "  Feuersnoth,"  "  Natoma,"  and  "  The  Violin  Maker  of 
Cremona  "  would  be  given,  and  they  were  not.  Of  old  works 
the  only  ones  promised  in  the  list  of  operas  and  not  given 
were  "  Crispino  e  la  Comare,"  "  Siberia,"  "  Lohengrin,"  "  I 
Puritani,"  "  Die  Meistersinger,"  and  "  Le  Prophete."  After 
disclosing  in  a  performance  of  "  Tannhauser  "  how  slight 
was  the  grasp  of  French  singers  upon  the  spirit  of  Wagner's 
dramas,  the  other  operas  by  that  master  were  gladly  spared. 
The  sensational  feature  of  the  season  was  the  production  of 
"  Elektra,"  which  had  seven  performances,  the  first  on  a 
special  night  with  prices  raised  to  $10.00  for  the  best  stalls 


ii4          PRODUCTION  OF  STRAUSS'S  "ELEKTRA" 

and  $2.50  for  the  poorest.  The  receipts  at  the  premiere 
amounted  to  $19,117.50  according  to 'Mr.  Hammerstein's 
figures,  and  the  excitement  was  intense.  There  was  another 
extra  performance  on  the  afternoon  of  Washington's  Birth- 
day and  five  representations  in  the  subscription.  Between 
the  first  performance  on  February  i  and  its  last  on  March 
5  the  opera  served  its  purpose  and  lived  out  its  welcome. 
The  season  ended  on  March  26.  Had  it  laster  any  longer  I 
fancy  that  "  Salome,"  which  was  at  once  revived,  would 
have  proved  the  more  popular  work  of  the  two  although  its 
novelty  was  worn  off.  Of  the  French  operas  "  Thais  "  and 
"  Les  Contes  d'Hoffmann "  disclosed  the  most  enduring 
qualities.  "  Sapho  "  was  distinctly  a  failure  (receiving  only 
three  performances)  and  so  was  "  Griselidis,"  though  Miss 
Garden  appeared  in  both  of  them. 

If  one  Salome  could  move  the  pool  so  pleasantly  for  an 
operatic  manager,  what  was  more  natural  than  that  another 
should  follow?  Despite  the  agitation  against  the  drama  by 
Richard  Strauss,  which  may  have  had  some  influence  in  the 
rapid  collapse  of  interest  in  "  Elektra  "  at  a  little  later  day, 
the  composer's  star  was  not  in  the  descendant ;  nevertheless 
Mr.  Hammerstein  seemed  determined  that  that  of  Massenet 
should  be  kept  in  the  ascendant.  On  November  8,  1909,  he 
brought  out  "  Herodiade,"  distributing  the  parts  among  his 
singers  as  follows : 

Salome  Luisa  Cavalieri 

Herodias    Mme.  Gerville-Reache 

A  Slave  Miss  Carew 

John  the  Baptist Charles  Dalmores 

Herod   Maurice  Renaud 

Vitellius    Armand   Crabbe 

Phanuel    M.  Vallier 

High  Priest    M.   Nicolay 

A   Voice    M.   Venturini 

Conductor,  M.  de  la  Fuente. 

There  are  Salomes  and  Salomes,  as  poets,  romancers, 
and  painters  have  amply  demonstrated,  though  they  are  at 


"  HfiRODIADE  "  AND  "  SAPHO  "  115 

one  in  skill  in  dancing  and  the  purpose  to  which  they  apply 
it.  The  woman  created  for  the  music  of  Massenet  by  one 
Italian  and  two  French  opera-book  makers  has  nothing 
else  in  common  with  the  perverted  creature  of  Wilde  and 
Strauss.  She  is  a  lovesick  damsel,  sentimental  and  silly  as 
a  schoolgirl,  and  at  the  last  a  penitent  Magdalen.  For  a 
study  of  her  and  Massenet's  work  I  must  refer  the  reader 
to  my  "  Second  Book  of  Operas  " ;  *  I  can  not  consume 
time  and  space  with  the  subject  here.  It  is  entertaining  but 
not  significant.  Ten  days  after  its  production  another  opera 
by  the  same  conductor  was  heard  at  the  Manhattan  Opera 
House  for  the  first  time  ,n  America.  This  was  "  Sapho." 
The  date  was  November  18,  1909,  and  the  cast  as  follows : 

Fanny  le  Grand  Mary  Garden 

Jean  Gaussin   M.  Dalmores 

Divonne  Mile,  d' Alvarez 

Irene    Mme.  Walter-Villa 

Caoudal  M.  Dufranne 

Cesaire  Gaussin   M.  Huberdeau 

La  Borderie   M.  Leroux 

Innkeeper  M.  Villa 

The  rapidity  with  which  Mr.  Hammerstein  was  bringing 
his  novelties  forward  threatened  danger  to  some  of  the 
operas  in  his  list,  especially  to  those  of  M.  Massenet. 
French  music,  as  a  rule,  but  especially  that  of  M.  Mas- 
senet, depends  for  its  effectiveness  on  refinement  in  presen- 
tation above  all  else.  It  might  have  been  better  for  "Sapho" 
if  more  time  and  greater  care  had  been  bestowed  upon  its 
preparation.  Not  that  any  less  violence  would  have  been 
done  to  it  by  the  performer  for  whose  sake  it  was  put  into 
Mr.  Hammerstein's  repertory  even  if  weeks  and  months  in- 
stead of  days  had  been  devoted  to  study.  Miss  Garden 
never  was  an  exponent  of  the  principles  for  which  M.  Mas- 
senet stands,  despite  the  fact  that  he  has  given  musical 

*  "  A  Second  Book  of  Operas ;  Their  Histories,  Their  Plots,  and 
Their  Music,"  p.  89.  New  York :  The  Macmillan  Company. 


ii6  MASSENET  ON  THE  LOCAL  STAGE 

investiture  to  several  dramatic  women  whom  she  felt  called 
upon  to  impersonate.  Her  appeals  were  rudely,  vulgarly 
physical,  whereas  his  are  graceful,  subtle,  and  psychological. 
The  best  illustration  of  the  divergence  between  the  methods 
of  the  creator  and  interpreter  was  made  in  the  second  act 
of  the  opera.  A  courtesan  wishes  to  stir  up  tender  and 
amiable  emotions  in  the  heart  of  a  young  law-student  who 
has  seen  the  whirl  of  Parisian  gay  life  but  has  not  yet 
been  engulfed  in  it.  He  is  a  native  of  Provence  and  the 
woman  sings  to  him  some  of  the  song  of  the  Magali — a 
melody  which  Mistral  immortalized  in  the  poem,  which 
Gounod  introduced  into  his  opera  on  the  subject  and  which, 
in  some  unexplained  manner,  got  into  the  truly  great 
dramatic  ballet  of  Berlioz's  "  Les  Troyens  en  Carthage." 
The  dramatic  motive  is  ingenious  and  Massenet's  use  of 
the  song  to  color  the  amiable  moments  of  his  opera  ad- 
mirable and  ingratiating.  An  artist  with  the  slightest 
modicum  of  understanding  of  the  situation  would  have 
made  the  incident  insinuating  and  alluring.  Miss  Garden 
sang  the  song  as  if  it  were  the  veriest  gutter  ballad  and 
ended  it  with  physical  postures  and  wriggles  which  destroyed 
all  the  illusions  that  ought  to  have  remained  hers  during 
the  rest  of  the  drama.  No  dolt  ever  came  out  of  Provence 
who  could  have  been  surprised  by  the  disclosures  which  were 
made  concerning  Fanny  le  Grand's  character  in  the  next 
act. 

We  had  been  invited  to  form  a  kind  and  good  opinion  of 
Massenet's  talent  by  the  operas  from  his  pen  which  we  had 
heard  in  recent  years.  Without  storming  our  senses  and 
imaginations  like  the  younger  Italian  composers,  he  had  won 
his  way  to  at  least  statistical  representation  alongside  of 
Puccini,  the  most  popular  of  modern  composers.  He  had 
written  much  and  we  had  heard  at  least  half  of  his  operas — 
"  Herodiade,"  "  Manon,"  "  Le  Cid,"  "  Thais,"  "  Werther," 
"  Le  Portrait  de  Manon,"  "  La  Navarraise,"  and  "  Le 
Jongleur  de  Notre  Dame."  Plainly  we  ought  to  have  ac- 


A  SENSATIONAL  PRODUCTION  117 

quired  a  taste  for  his  music  unless  we  were  willing  to 
confess  a  readiness  to  be  bored  for  the  sake  of  things  for 
which  he  was  not  responsible.  It  ought  not  be  hard  to 
acquire  a  liking  for  "  Sapho."  Even  those  who  feel  dis- 
posed to  be  moralists  when  they  sit  in  the  theater  have 
accustomed  themselves  to  hear  "  Carmen,"  "  Traviata," 
"  La  Boheme,"  and  "  Manon "  without  moral  retchings. 
"  Sapho  "  is  little  else  than  a  compages  from  these  operas. 
Like  all  of  Massenet's  operas  it  has  moments  of  lyrical 
beauty  and  holds  the  interest  of  the  knowing  by  its  unfailing 
technical  deftness.  There  are  moments  of  banality  in  the 
score,  but  some  of  them  seem  to  be  intentional.  Nothing 
but  realism  would  fit  into  some  of  the  scenes,  and  the  con- 
versation in  the  first  act  which  depicts  a  masquerade  in  the 
studio  of  a  Paris  sculptor  would  be  operatically  unnatural 
if  it  did  not  float  upon  the  tonal  undulations  of  a  vulgar 
waltz.  There  is  genuine  humor,  though  of  a  low  order,  in 
the  restaurant  music  made  by  a  band  consisting  of  a  clarinet, 
cornet,  and  tuba — the  little  German  bands  of  our  back 
yards.  But  there  is  also  much  flowing  melody  in  the  score, 
melody  which  affects  the  emotions  even  if  they  are  not  in- 
spired by  them,  which  is  not  deep  but  yet  appealing;  and 
in  the  play  there  are  pictures  full  of  movement  and  effective 
to  the  eye. 

"  Elektra  "  was  performed  for  the  first  time  in  America 
on  February  i,  1910.  In  the  mood  then  prevailing  in  the 
popular  mind  the  incident  was  stupendously  momentous, 
not  a  historical  trifle  like  the  battles  of  Leipsic,  Waterloo, 
and  Bunker  Hill  or  the  meeting  of  the  barons  at  Runnymede. 
The  lyric  tragedy,  indeed,  was  one  of  the  sensations  of  the 
hour  throughout  the  Occidental  world  (Great  is  Rcklame 
and  Strauss  is  its  prophet!),  and  this  book  would  be  a  vain 
thing  if  it  did  not  tell  when  it  was  first  produced  in  the 
United  States,  where  it  was  produced,  how  it  was  produced, 
by  whom  it  was  performed,  and  what  effect  it  made  upon 
its  hearers.  As  incidentally  contributory  to  the  chronicle,  a 


Ii8  RECEPTION  OF  "ELEKTRA" 

study  of  the  work  by  a  writer  compelled  by  his  duty  to  a 
newspaper  to  write  down  his  impressions  may  be  tolerated. 
The  time,  then,  was  February  I,  1910;  the  place  the  Man- 
hattan Opera  House  in  New  York;  the  language  French; 
the  conductor  Henriques  de  la  Fuente ;  the  stage-manager 
Jacques  Coini;  the  impresario  Oscar  Hammerstein;  the 
actors  these: 


Elektra    Marietta  Mazarin 

Chrysosthemis   Alice  Baron 

Klytemnestra   Mme.  Gerville-Reache 

Orestes  M.  Huberdeau 

^Egisthus    M.   Duffault 

Foster-father  of  Orestes M.  Nicolay 

A  Young  Servant    Sig.   Venturini 

An  Old  Servant Mr.  Scott 

The  Confidante  Miss  Desmond 

Overseer  of  the  Servants Mile.  Taty-Lango 

Train-bearer   Miss  Johnstone 

First  Servingwoman  Alice  Gentle 

Second  Servingwoman  Mile.  Severina 

Third  Servingwoman   Miss  Milda 

Fourth  Servingwoman  Mme.  Walter-Villa 

Fifth  Servingwoman   Mme.  Duchene 


I  have  already  made  record  of  the  first  performance  of 
the  work  in  Europe  and  the  facts  touching  Mr.  Hammer- 
stein's  acquisition  of  the  right  of  performance  in  America. 
It  was  written  as  a  spoken  play  by  Hugo  von  Hofmannsthal, 
a  Viennese  dramatist.  After  Strauss  had  provided  it  with 
music  a  French  translation  was  made  by  M.  Gauthier- 
Villar.  There  was  just  such  an  audience  in  attendance  on 
the  first  American  performance  as  a  sensational  incident 
of  the  first  magnitude  might  have  been  expected  to  sum- 
mon. It  could  not  have  been  larger,  it  could  not  have 
been  more  attentive,  it  could  only  amaze  the  observer 
who  saw  it  sit  for  two  hours  while  a  tale  of  horror  was 
unrolled  before  it  and  music  dinned  into  its  ears  which 
lacked  nearly  every  one  of  the  elements  supposed  to  be  at- 


COLLAPSE  OF  MME.  MAZARIN  119 

tractive  to  the  ordinary  lovers  of  the  old  opera  or  the  mod- 
ern lyric  drama.  The  audience  and  the  critical  observer 
recognized  one  thing  in  common,  which  was  that  the  man  of 
operatic  miracles,  oppressed  by  difficulties  greater  than  he 
had  ever  confronted  before,  fulfilled  a  promise  which  seemed 
beyond  the  possibility  of  fulfilment.  A  German  work  which 
has  affrighted  the  souls  of  managers  and  singers  of  the 
majority  of  German  opera  houses  was  performed  by  a  com- 
pany predominantly  French,  in  a  style  which  compelled  the 
admission  that  its  spirit  in  general  had  been  grasped,  that 
there  were  few  deficiencies  in  details  to  deplore,  and  that  in 
respect  of  the  principal  actor  there  had  been  a  performance 
nothing  short  of  marvelous.  Little  was  the  surprise  of  the 
knowing  that  Mme.  Mazarin  had  suffered  a  physical  col- 
lapse after  she  had  accomplished  an  almost  superhuman 
labor  and  was  made  to  realize  that  she  had  been  successful. 
The  measure  of  that  success  can  not  be  described  even  at 
this  date.  For  two  hours  she  was  on  the  stage  shrieking 
in  the  Straussian  manner  the  emotions  of  Hofmannsthal's 
maniacal  Electra ;  yet  when  a  kind  dispensation  of  the  com- 
poser permitted  her  to  sing,  she  sang;  and  always  she 
freighted  the  imagination  of  the  audience  with  the  image 
of  a  tragic  character  unfathomably  pathetic  because  of  its 
offense  against  all  that  is  good  in  art.  Compared  with  her 
all  the  rest  of  the  performers  were  marionettes,  not  except- 
ing the  representative  of  Klytemnestra,  who  ought  to  have 
seemed  dominant  with  her  regal  pose  and  attire. 

It  is  not  correct  to  say,  as  a  majority  of  commentators 
have  said,  that  Hofmannsthal's  tragedy  is  a  paraphrase  of 
the  "  Elektra  "  of  Sophocles.  It  is  based  on  the  classic  in 
some  of  its  elements ;  it  recalls  it  in  some  of  its  pictures ; 
it  roots  in  it  in  some  of  its  moods ;  it  follows  it  in  some  of 
its  phases ;  but  it  is  as  un-Hellenic  as  Bernard  Shaw's  Cleo- 
patra is  unantique.  Perhaps  it  will  be  urged  that  the  mod- 
ern dramatist  was  not  called  upon  to  treat  his  subject  in  an 
Hellenic  manner.  Then  he  might  have  created  a  modern 


120  GREEK  IDEALS  IGNORED 

story  of  revengeful  matricide.  The  whole  raison  d'etre  of 
the  story  of  Electra  lies  in  its  antique  elements.  A  dra- 
matist has  no  more  right  to  modernize  them  than  he  would 
have  to  take  a  vulgar  murder  of  today  on  the  East  Side  of 
New  York  and  trick  out  its  representation  with  thymele  and 
choral  ode.  Motives  and  manners  ought  to  be  synchronous 
in  art ;  they  always  will  be  in  the  minds  of  true  artists.  In 
yEschylus  the  solemnity  of  a  religious  rite  rests  upon  the 
deed  of  Orestes ;  and  Electra  is  not  thrust  into  the  fore- 
ground. In  Sophocles  the  physical  horror  in  which  Electra 
compels  us  to  participate  is  ameliorated  by  the  thought  con- 
tinually forced  upon  us  that  it  is  a  sacrificial  act  which  we 
must  witness,  or  have  witnessed.  In  the  version  of  Euripi- 
des, where  there  are  suggestions  of  greater  realism  and 
greater  religious  skepticism,  we  are  yet  kept  in  a  mood  of 
awe  which  is  saved  from  mere  horror  by  the  poet's  art — 
his  appreciation  of  beauty.  Hofmannsthal  is  not  content 
to  lead  us  into  the  shambles  and  the  charnel  house;  we 
must  also  go  with  him  into  the  presence  of  the  mentally 
diseased,  into  the  madhouse.  There  was  no  healthy  person 
in  Wilde's  "  Salome  "  except  the  Baptist  and  a  few  other 
inconsequential  people,  inactives.  There  is  no  healthy  per- 
son in  this  "  Elektra  "  except  a  few  inactives.  Willy-nilly 
we  must  witness  the  deeds  and  hear  the  words  of  patho- 
logical subjects.  Sexual  perversity  is  the  keynote  of  every- 
thing. Electra's  mind  is  not  so  much  filled  by  the  awful- 
ness  of  the  murder  of  her  father  as  by  rage  at  the  carnal 
lust  of  her  mother  which  led  her  to  do  the  awful  deed.  She 
has  no  sympathy  with  the  natural  instincts  of  womanhood 
which  her  sister  pleads  as  her  reason  for  not  wishing  to 
commit  the  crime  cf  parricide;  but  when  she  hears  of  the 
death  of  ^Egisthus  she  plays  like  a  wanton  upon  the  sexual 
and  sensual  chords  which  Chrysosthemis  had  sounded.  Then 
she  fondles  the  body  of  her  sister  and  seeks  by  all  manner 
of  device  to  turn  her  exaggerated  sense  of  sexuality  into  a 
motive  for  the  crime  which  she  herself  can  not  commit. 


DECADENCE  IN  THE  MUSIC  121 

Not  a  feature  of  this  degeneracy  are  we  spared.  This  is  as 
little  Hellenic  as  is  the  substitution  of  a  maniacal  thirst  for 
the  blood  of  her  mother  for  the  solemn  religious  duty  with 
its  premonition  of  the  fateful  consequences  which  yEschylus 
continually  kept  before  the  mind  of  his  public.  Timotheus 
of  Miletus  is  popularly  supposed  to  have  been  banished  from 
his  country  because  of  his  musical  innovations,  which  it  was 
believed  would  tend  toward  the  efTemination  of  the  Spartan 
youths.  But  if  the  decree  of  banishment  by  the  Spartan 
Senate  be  read  it  will  be  found  that  it  was  not  alone  because 
Timotheus  added  to  the  number  of  the  strings  of  the  kithara 
that  he  was  condemned,  but  because  in  a  poem  sung  at  one 
of  the  Olympian  festivals  he  made  light  of  the  birth-pains 
of  Semele.  That  was  Hellenic.  Things  which  were  once 
too  sacred  to  be  treated  lightly  are  the  piquancies  of  the 
decadent  poets  and  dramatists  of  today. 

It  is  mournful  to  contemplate  this  tendency  in  the  drama; 
it  is  no  less  mournful  to  contemplate  a  parallel  tendency  in 
Strauss's  music.  With  all  its  brilliancy,  with  all  its  capacity 
to  stir  the  emotions  and  fire  the  imagination,  it  is  decadent. 
It  is  shown  to  be  decadent  by  the  very  elements  which 
arouse  astonishment  and  admiration.  In  "  Elektra  "  it  fills 
the  same  place  and  serves  the  same  purpose  as  in  "  Salome." 
It  creates  atmosphere  for  the  score.  It  is  decorative.  It 
heightens  the  mood  of  the  text.  It  illuminates  the  psycho- 
logical and  physiological  bestiality  of  the  people  of  the  play. 
It  does  not,  as  music  in  its  best  estate  in  the  compositions 
of  Wagner  does,  act  the  part  of  the  Greek  chorus  in  com- 
menting on  and  reflecting  the  horror  (and  when  it  may,  the 
cheer)  of  the  drama,  but  revels  in  it  and  glorifies  it.  This 
is  best  observed  in  the  maniacal  dance  which  at  the  last 
exhausts  the  vital  force  of  Electra.  Its  counterpart  in  the 
earlier  drama  is  not  the  dance  of  Salome,  but  the  apotheosis 
of  her  unnamable  lust  with  which  the  play  ends.  The  music 
of  "  Elektra  "  is  virtuoso  music  of  the  highest  order.  Never 
before  has  dissonance  been  so  freely  used  and  never  before 


122  IMPERMANENCY  OF  STRAUSS'S  OPERAS 

has  dissonance  been  so  robbed  of  its  terrors  by  the  magic 
of  instrumentation.  Never  before  have  musical  thoughts 
(for  which  the  conception  of  melody  has  long  stood  and 
will  stand  again  when  Strauss  and  "  Elektra  "  are  forgot- 
ten) of  such  paltriness  and  banality  been  made  to  sound  so 
impressive  by  application  of  characteristic  and  brilliant  in- 
strumental color.  Electra's  cry  of  "  Agamemnon !  "  has  an 
agonizing  sound,  but  it  consists  of  nothing  more  than  the 
tones  of  the  common  chord,  now  minor,  now  major.  Mu- 
sical symbols  like  these,  however,  float  on  a  flood  of  music 
which  surges  onward  as  resistlessly  as  a  stream  of  lava. 
In  supreme  moments  like  that  at  the  meeting  of  Electra 
and  Orestes  the  orchestral  song  becomes  a  hymn  against 
whose  eloquence  our  judgment  and  emotions  are  as  power- 
less as  were  the  forces  of  nature  when  the  Finnish  Orpheus 
chanted  his  runes.  But  with  all  our  admiration  we  recog- 
nize the  great  model — Richard  Wagner.  Had  there  been 
no  "  Tristan  und  Isolde  "  there  would  have  been  no  such 
song  as  Strauss  has  given  us  between  Electra  and  her 
brother.  In  spite  of  the  potency  of  the  modern  music,  what 
a  difference  in  the  potential  melos !  Marvel  as  we  may  at 
the  music  of  this  lyric  drama  in  its  newest  phase,  there  can 
be  no  other  conclusion  than  that  its  brilliancy  is  the  strong- 
est proof  of  its  decadence.  The  age  of  greatest  technical 
skill — virtuosity,  as  it  is  called — is  the  age  of  greatest  decay 
in  really  creative  energy. 

The  noise  of  the  explosion  of  "  Elektra  "  is  over.  How 
long  will  the  reverberations  last?  Until  public  curiosity  is 
satisfied.  Not  a  moment  longer.  That  has  been  the  story 
of  Richard  Strauss's  operas  from  the  beginning.  Each  is 
looked  forward  to  with  the  expectation  that  it  will  provide 
a  sensation,  a  new  thrill.  The  sensation  having  been  felt, 
the  thrill  experienced,  there  is  an  end  of  the  matter.  Such 
art-works  are  not  like  jealousy,  -"  which  doth  make  the  meat 
it  feeds  on."  Interest  burns  itself  out  speedily  because  it 
finds  no  healthy  nourishment  in  them ;  nothing  to  warm  the 


MASSENET'S  "  GRISf  LIDIS  "  123 

emotions,  exalt  the  mind,  permanently  to  charm  the  senses, 
awaken  the  desire  for  frequent  companionship,  or  foster  a 
taste  like  that  created  by  a  contemplation  of  the  true,  the 
beautiful,  and  the  good.  Pathological  subjects  belong  to  the 
field  of  scientific  knowledge — not  to  that  of  art.  A  visit  to 
a  madhouse  or  infirmary  may  be  undertaken  once  to  gratify 
curiosity;  aesthetic  pleasure  can  never  come  from  frequent 
contemplation  of  mental  and  moral  abnormalities  or  physical 
monstrosities.  No  pleasure  can  accrue  to  lovers  of  beauty 
from  the  fact  that  there  is  harmony  between  such  dramas 
as  "  Salome  "  and  "  Elektra  "  and  the  musical  investiture 
which  Richard  Strauss  has  given  to  them.  Taste  for  the 
play  is  likely  to  be  paired  with  taste  for  the  music ;  and  the 
reason  is  that  the  taste,  like  the  things  that  it  approves,  is 
unhealthy.  Curiosity  is  easily  satisfied ;  the  taste  for  truly 
beautiful  things  grows  with  its  gratification,  and,  though  it 
changes  its  ideals,  it  changes  them  slowly  and  never  departs 
wholly  from  its  fundamental  principles.  Even  with  the  de- 
plorable tendency  of  today  toward  nervous  degeneracy,  with 
all  its  sorrowful  consequences,  there  is  no  need  to  fear  that 
neurasthenia  will  overwhelm  all  forms  of  art  or  even  dra- 
matic music  speedilv.  Mozart  and  Beethoven  have  not  yet 
been  dethroned  and  the  banishment  of  their  music  to  the 
limbo  of  forgotten  thin.es  is  not  imminent. 

In  discussing  "  Elektra  "  in  this  place  I  have  departed 
from  the  chronological  order  of  Mr.  Hammerstein's  pro- 
duction of  novelties  for  no  reason  except  to  humor  a  notion 
that  a  less  grewsome  topic  would  make  a  fitter,  or  at  least  a 
more  amiable,  conclusion  to  this  chapter.  There  remains 
for  consideration  one  more  novelty,  Massenet's  "  Griselidis," 
the  third  work  by  that  composer  contained  in  the  season's 
list.  It  was  performed  for  the  first  time  on  January  19, 
1910,  M.  de  la  Fuente  conducting  and  the  characters  of  the 
play  distributed  among  the  artists  as  follows : 

Griselidis  Mary  Garden 

Fiamina    .  .    Mme.   Walter-Villa 


124  FRENCH  MUSIC  AND  RELIGION 

Bertrade Mme.  Duchene 

The  Marquis   M.  Dufranne 

Alain  M.  Dalmores 

The  Devil   M.  Huberdeau 

The  Friar  M.  Villa 

Goudebaud   .    Mr.   Scott 


This  opera,  like  "  Le  Jongleur,"  is  in  sharp  contrast  with 
the  somewhat  lurid  "  Thais  "  and  the  romantic  "  Manon  " 
and  "  Werther,"  in  which  there  is  more  or  less  portrayal  of 
domestic  passion.  So  many  operas  by  a  single  composer 
ought  to  speak  well  for  the  versatility  of  the  composer,  as 
it  surely  does  of  his  industry  and  fecundity.  M.  Massenet's 
individuality  is  incontestable,  but  it  leans  heavily  on  same- 
ness. The  French  wits  who  thought  it  clever  to  dub  him 
"  Mademoiselle  Wagner "  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  ago 
never  had  the  opportunity  to  greet  him  as  "  Madame."  The 
features  of  his  art  which  were  the  most  charming  then  re- 
mained the  most  charming  to  the  end  of  his  career.  He  did 
not  grow  older  in  thought  or  riper  in  creative  ability,  but 
only  more  facile  and  finished  in  expression.  "  Griselidis  " 
was  the  first  product  of  an  amiable  pose  which  was  con- 
tinued in  "  Le  Jongleur."  It  was  once  common  gossip  in 
Paris  that  Massenet  composed  "  Le  Jongleur  "  to  answer 
the  flings  of  the  boulevardiers  that  his  inspiration  required 
the  spur  of  Sibyl  Sanderson's  charms.  "  Griselidis  "  had 
already  disclosed  the  absurdity  of  the  accusation.  It  pre- 
ceded "  Le  Jongleur  "  and  was  as  little  adapted  to  the  type 
which  he  had  associated  with  Miss  Sanderson  as  "  Le  Jon- 
gleur "  was  adapted  to  Miss  Garden — or  any  other  woman 
for  that  matter.  Both  operas  are,  in  fact,  easily  explained 
by  the  essentially  sentimental  spirit  of  French  art  when  re- 
ligion is  concerned  in  it.  Gounod's  attempt  to  write  an 
oratorio  on  so  sublime  a  subject  as  the  fall  and  redemption 
of  man  and  Massenet's  picture  of  the  touching  piety  of  an 
honest  mountebank — it  is  all  one ;  the  music  is  bound  to 
run  out  into  a  gentle  strain  of  religious  balladry.  Except 


PATIENT  GRIZEL  AND  HER  HISTORY  125 

for  Cesar  Franck's  "  Beatitudes,"  the  basic  type  for  French 
religious  music  is  "  There  Is  a  Green  Hill  Far  Away." 

French  music  is  still  ingenuous  in  its  pursuit  of  beauty. 
It  has  not  accepted  inspiration  from  Ibsen.  Oscar  Wilde, 
to  whom  modern  Germans  point  as  the  highest  develop- 
ment of  dramatic  genius  outside  of  their  own  country,  has 
not  yet  appealed  to  the  people  for  whom  he  wrote  what  his 
German  admirers  think  a  transcendent  masterpiece.  They 
will  have  none  of  Wilde's  poem.  Electra's  bestial  feroc- 
ity as  pictured  by  Hofmannsthal  found  no  more  favor 
among  the  French  than  Salome's  perverse  passion  did.  Let 
thus  much  be  said  in  favor  of  the  artistic  tendency  of  a 
people  who  were  willing  to  hark  back  to  a  miracle  tale  like 
of  "  The  Juggler  of  Our  Lady  "  and  to  a  legend  like  that  of 
"  Griselidis."  Who,  indeed,  but  a  Frenchman  would  have 
thought  of  calling  "  the  patient  Grizel "  back  to  life?  That 
marvelous  model  of  patience,  humility,  fidelity,  and  wifely 
obedience  !  We  thought  that  the  lachrymal  floodgates  which 
the  perusal  of  her  sufferings  kept  open  for  three  centuries 
or  more  had  long  ago  been  closed.  And  to  present  her 
with  truly  mediaeval  simplicity,  without  philosophic  gloss 
inspired  by  modern  thought  in  these  days  of  female  assert- 
iveness — what  daring! 

It  is  difficult  to  tell  where  the  image  of  Grizel,  or  Griselda, 
or  Griselidis  came  from.  The  popular  comedians  were 
playing  "  La  Mystere  de  Griselidis  "  in  Paris  in  1793,  when 
there  were  already  at  least  twenty  French  versions  of  the 
old  story.  Boccaccio  had  told  it  in  his  "  Decameron " ; 
Petrarch  had  made  a  Latin  romance  of  it  ("  De  Obedientia 
et  Fide  Uxoria  Mythologia  "),  and  Chaucer  had  put  it  into 
the  mouth  of  his  clerk  in  "  The  Canterbury  Pilgrims."  The 
Italian  poet  Zeno  made  an  opera-book  of  it,  which  was  com- 
posed by  more  than  a  dozen  composers  between  1701  and 
1796.  Of  all  of  these  operas  I  can  recall  only  a  single  relic. 
In  her  song  recitals  Mme.  Sembrich  used  to  sing  occasion- 
ally an  aria  beginning  "  Per  la  gloria  d'  adorarvi,"  from  the 


126  BONONCINI'S  "  GRISELDA  " 

"  Griselda  "  which  Bononcini  brought  forward  in  London 
in  1723,  and  which  was  so  successful  that  it  filled  Handel 
with  pangs  of  jealousy  and  provoked  John  Byrom's  famous 
epigram  about  the  little  difference  between  tweedledum  and 
tweedledee.  Other  incidents  of  historical  interest  are  asso- 
ciated with  this  predecessor  of  Massenet's  opera.  Anastasia 
Robinson  enacted  the  part  of  Griselda,  and  if  Dr.  Burney 
is  to  be  believed  it  was  her  conduct  and  song  as  the  saintly 
sufferer  that  completed  the  conquest  of  Lord  Peterborough, 
who  married  the  prima  donna  after  he  had  caned  Senesino 
for  having  been  rude  to  her  behind  the  scenes.  That  the 
story  of  the  opera  could  provoke  levity  as  well  as  tears 
nearly  two  hundred  years  ago  is  also  proved  by  some  lines 
which  appeared  in  The  Freeholder's  Journal  on  March  14, 
1722,  apropos  of  the  wretchedness  of  the  libretto  written 
by  Signer  Rolli,  a  friend  of  Bononcini's  and  a  hearty  hater 
of  Handel : 

Cast  from  her  kingdom,  from  her  lord  exiled, 
Griselda  still  was  lamblike,  mute,  and  mild. 
But  Rolli's  verse  provoked  the  saint  to  roar, 
She  rav'd,  she  madd'ned  and  her  pinners  tore. 
Till  Bononcini  smooth'd  the  ragged  strains 
And  sanctified  the  miserable  scenes. 

Massenet's  opera  was  a  mystery  before  it  was  an  opera. 
Its  authors,  Armand  Sylvestre  and  Eugene  Morand,  pro- 
duced the  play  at  the  Comedie  Frangais  on  May  15,  1891. 
To  make  an  opera  out  of  it  required  little  else  than  the  pre- 
fixing of  a  prologue  and  the  investiture  of  the  lines  with 
music.  Thus  changed,  Massenet  brought  it  out  at  the  Opera 
Comique  on  November  20,  1901.  In  the  cast  were  two 
artists  known  to  New  York.  M.  Huberdeau,  who  appeared 
in  the  Devil's  part  in  Hammerstein's  production,  was  the 
original  operatic  Gondebeau,  and  Mile.  Breval,  one  of  Mr. 
Grau's  prima  donnas  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  in 
1900-01,  was  the  Griselidis.  The  opera  differs  in  some  par- 
ticulars from  the  mediaeval  legend,  but  the  story  may  first 


CHANGES  BY  THE  FRENCH  LIBRETTIST  127 

be  told  in  its  old  form.  It  is  all  about  a  charcoal  burner's 
daughter  who  becomes  the  wife  of  the  Marquis  of  Saluzzo. 
He,  to  test  her  obedience,  robs  her  of  her  infant  daughter, 
whom  he  sends  to  the  Queen  of  Pavia  to  be  brought  up. 
Her  son,  who  was  born  four  years  later,  is  also  sent  away, 
and,  as  in  the  case  of  the  daughter,  the  mother  is  told  that 
he  has  been  murdered.  Finally,  a  decade  or  so  thereafter, 
the  Marquis  tells  his  wife  that  he  intends  to  divorce  her  and 
marry  another  woman.  He  strips  her  of  all  her  rich  apparel 
and  sends  her  in  rags  back  to  the  dingy  hut  from  which  he 
had  taken  her.  Thence,  after  a  space,  she  is  summoned 
again  to  the  palace,  but  this  time  to  receive  her  rival  and 
deck  her  out  for  the  wedding  ceremony.  To  all  these  things 
this  most  amazing  of  all  loving  and  dutiful  wives  submits 
without  a  murmur  and  is  rewarded  at  the  last  by  the  res- 
toration to  her  of  her  children  and  her  husband's  love  and 
confidence. 

The  changes  which  the  modern  dramatizers  of  the  Gri- 
selda  story  have  made  seem  to  have  had  for  their  chief 
purpose  the  rehabilitation  of  the  character  of  the  Marquis, 
who  for  centuries  has  suffered  denunciation  as  a  cruel, 
tyrannical,  and  abnormally  suspicious  husband.  In  the 
opera  he  is  as  uxorious  a  knight  of  the  slipper  as  any  win- 
dow-storming suffragette  could  wish.  It  is  not  he  who  fears 
to  trust  his  wife,  but  his  friar,  who  is  supposedly  Griselidis's 
father-confessor.  It  is  not  he  who  subjects  her  to  trials  and 
temptations,  but  the  Devil,  who,  being  a  henpecked  husband, 
has  as  sorry  an  opinion  of  womanhood  as  has  the  Friar  for 
reasons  which  he  does  not  divulge.  In  introducing  this  devil 
M.  Massenet  and  his  collaborators  have  been  more  naively 
mediaeval  than  the  creator  of  the  familiar  of  Dr.  Faustus. 
He  is  not  Goethe's  devil,  who  was  so  much  of  a  gentleman 
that  the  only  observable  abnormality  about  him  was  his 
limping  gait.  He  is  not  even  the  rather  too  gaudily  dressed 
cavalier  of  Barbiere,  Carre,  and  Gounod.  He  is  a  devil 
from  the  roof  of  Notre  Dame  Cathedral  called  into  life.  His 


128  THE  OPERATIC  STORY 

ostensible  purpose  in  the  opera  is  to  accomplish  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  innocent  Griselidis ;  the  real  object  of  his  intro- 
duction is  to  bring  a  comic  element  into  the  play.  And 
surely  a  Devil  who  has  a  wife  shrewish  enough  to  keep  him 
in  hot  water  is  comical  enough.  He  would  have  served  his 
purpose  without  so  much  opera  bonffe  as  M.  Massenet  bur- 
dened him  with.  He  has  horns  and  possibly  hoofs,  though 
he  is  lighter  on  his  feet  than  Mephistopheles.  He  has  a  fur 
cloak  with  tails  of  which  he  makes  picturesque  use.  He 
lays  a  wager  with  the  Marquis  that  Griselidis  will  play  him 
false  just  as  Mephistopheles  does  with  the  Ancient  that  he 
will  lead  Faust  astray  and  Satan  does  with  God  that  Job  will 
not  withstand  his  wiles.  The  Marquis  is  guilty  of  no  wrong, 
but  only  of  the  weakness  which  afflicted  Posthumus  Leona- 
tus  in  Shakespeare's  "  Cymbeline  "  and  Adolar  in  Weber's 
"  Euryanthe."  The  Devil,  having  made  a  bet,  tries  to  win  it. 
He  prevails  upon  his  wife  Fiamina  to  play  the  part  of  a  slave 
to  the  Marquis,  who  has  gone  off  to  the  Holy  Wars,  and  in- 
troduces her  as  mistress  into  the  castle  over  which  Griselidis 
imagines  that  she  reigned.  Griselidis  remains  mute  and 
uncomplaining.  He  brings  back  her  shepherd  lover  Alain, 
who  had  poured  out  his  passion  in  an  exquisite  song  in  the 
prologue  and  had  been  most  unaccountably  thrown  over  in 
favor  of  the  Marquis  at  first  sight;  and,  though  she  wavered 
slightly  then,  she  is  held  to  a  sense  of  her  wifely  duty  by 
the  sight  of  her  child.  In  a  rage  at  being  cheated  by  mater- 
nal love,  the  Devil  steals  the  child  and  hides  him  away.  Then 
the  Devil  in  the  disguise  of  a  corsair  attempts  to  persuade 
Griselidis  to  go  down  to  the  ship  whose  pirate  captain,  he 
says,  is  enamored  of  her,  on  the  promise  that  there  she  shall 
find  her  son.  But  the  Marquis  returns  from  the  Crusades, 
and  when  the  Devil  brings  forth  false  witness  against  Gri- 
selidis the  good  Marquis  refuses  to  believe  him,  and  if  he 
had  suspicions  they  vanish  when  he  sees  his  lovely  wife.  At 
the  last  the  Devil  (who  has  been  aping  Gounod's  melodious 
fiend  in  other  things)  hides  himself  in  a  column  and  thence 


WAGNER'S  OPERAS  IN  FRENCH  129 

proclaims  that  the  lost  boy  Loys  is  his.  Then  the  loving 
parents  kneel  down  before  the  shrine  of  St.  Agnes,  and  as 
they  pray  the  tryptich  opens  and  there  is  their  child  un- 
harmed. Happy  parents !  Asinine  and  discomfited  Devil ! 

Mr.  Hammerstein's  plans  for  the  season  -contained  an 
anomalous  feature  growing  out  of  his  desire  to  make  his 
scheme  as  comprehensive  artistically  as  that  of  the  rival 
establishment.  As  the  international  character  of  the  operas 
performed  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  had  long  been 
the  boast  of  its  operating  company  and  much  of  its  success 
had  been  due  to  its  German  contingent,  Mr.  Hammerstein 
determined  to  include  operas  from  the  Wagnerian  list  in 
his  repertory.  He  announced  "  Tannhauser,"  "  Lohengrin," 
and  "  Die  Meistersinger,"  but,  having  no  German  singers  in 
his  company,  he  was  compelled  to  resort  to  French  transla- 
tions. A  like  exigency  had  forced  the  Metropolitan  Com- 
pany to  give  "  The  Bartered  Bride,"  a  Bohemian  opera,  in 
German  in  the  preceding  season,  and  the  same  expedient 
was  afterwards  followed  with  "  Boris  Godounoff,"  "  Prince 
Igor,"  and  "  Pique  Dame,"  Russian  operas  which  were  sung 
in  Italian,  and  "  Iphigenie  en  Aulide,"  a  French  opera,  which 
was  sung  in  German,  a  proceeding  exactly  paralleled,  so  far 
as  the  effect  upon  the  work  was  concerned,  by  Mr.  Ham- 
merstein's French  "  Tannhauser."  Mr.  Hammerstein  was 
not  only  audacious  in  all  his  undertakings,  he  was  also  cour- 
ageous in  confessing  his  mistakes.  Finding  light  French 
opera  ineffective  for  his  purposes  he  abandoned  it ;  after 
three  performances  of  "  Tannhauser  "  he  became  convinced 
that  the  work  was  too  German  in  spirit  to  prove  acceptable 
in  French,  and  he  put  it  upon  the  shelf  and  made  no  effort 
to  produce  its  companions.  It  was  a  manly  act,  for  with 
manifold  shortcomings  the  performances  were  yet  indica- 
tive of  a  sincere  striving  for  artistic  good.  So  far  as  the 
general  public  was  concerned  I  shall  not  undertake  to  esti- 
mate the  extent  to  which  the  use  of  the  French  language 
militated  against  the  success  of  the  opera.  No  doubt  many 


130     ATTITUDE  OF  THE  PUBLIC  TOWARDS  TEXTS 

more  of  Mr.  Hammerstein's  patrons  understood  German 
than  understood  French ;  no  doubt  those  who  understood 
German  preferred  operas  which  are  German  in  subject  and 
spirit  sung  in  the  German  tongue;  but  it  is  much  to  be 
feared  that  the  majority  of  opera-goers  in  New  York  today 
are  as  blithely  indifferent  to  the  language  used  by  the  stage 
people  as  were  the  English  people  of  Addison's  day,  when 
opera  was  half  English  and  half  Italian,  or  the  Hamburg 
people  of  Handel's  early  day,  when  German  recitatives  and 
Italian  arias  alternated  with  each  other  in  the  same  scene. 
Our  population  is  composed  of  many  elements,  and  the 
enjoyment  of  each  element  is  unquestionably  greater  at  a 
performance  given  in  the  language  native  to  it  than  in  any 
other  tongue.  But,  on  the  whole,  it  has  been  made  plain  a 
thousand  times  that  the  general  attitude  is  one  of  indiffer- 
ence to  everything  except  the  personality  of  the  singers, 
their  singing,  and  the  pictures  by  which  they  are  surrounded. 
In  fact,  it  is  not  unlike  that  of  Boileau  when  he  went  to  the 
Academic  and  asked  the  box-keeper  to  put  him  in  a  place 
where  he  could  hear  Lully's  music  but  not  Quinault's  words. 
Mme.  de  Stael  condemned  the  German  composers  of  her  day 
because  they  followed  the  sense  of  the  text  too  closely, 
whereas  the  Italians,  she  said,  made  the  melody  and  the 
words  conform  to  each  other  in  a  general  way.  Long  after 
Mme.  de  Stael,  George  Hogarth,  an  English  writer  and  the 
author  of  a  charming  and  instructive  book  on  the  history 
of  opera,  put  it  down  as  his  conviction  that  the  words  of  an 
operatic  air  were  of  small  importance  to  the  comprehension 
of  the  business  of  a  piece.  They  merely  express  a  senti- 
ment, he  said — a  reflection,  a  feeling.  It  is  quite  enough  if 
their  general  import  be  known,  and  this  may  most  fre- 
quently be  gathered  from  the  situation  aided  by  the  char- 
acter and  expression  of  the  music. 

However,  Mr.  Hogarth  wrote  before  Wagner  had  accom- 
plished his  reform  and  before  such  things  as  a  people's  char- 
acteristic ideals  and  a  people's  characteristic  manner  of  ex- 


JEAN  DE  RESZKE  ON  TRANSLATIONS  131 

pression  had  received  wide  recognition.  The  French  were 
the  first  people  after  the  Italians  had  invented  the  form  to 
develop  a  style  of  operatic  music  based  upon  the  genius  of 
their  language,  though  two  of  the  composers  who  took  part 
in  the  development  were  foreigners — Lully,  an  Italian,  and 
Gluck,  an  Austrian.  But  the  French  have  been  quite  as 
careless  about  preserving  the  spirit  of  foreign  works  in  the 
translations  which  they  have  made  for  their  own  delecta- 
tion as  any  other  people.  In  this  respect,  indeed,  all  the 
nations  meet  on  common  ground.  A  case  in  point  comes  to 
mind:  The  lovers  of  Wagner's  dramas  are  not  likely  soon 
to  forget  what  Jean  de  Reszke  did  to  restore  them  in  their 
native  tongue  to  the  repertory  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House.  At  the  time  when  the  public  was  crowding  the 
house  to  enjoy  his  impersonation  of  Tristan  I  remarked  to 
him  that  I  would  pay  a  handsome  sum  could  I  be  present  to 
witness  the  enthusiasm  of  the  impressionable  French  people 
when  he  should  sing  the  role  at  the  Grand  Opera  in  Paris. 

"  I  have  already  been  asked  by  the  director  to  sing  it," 
said  M.  de  Reszke,  "  and  have  said  that  I  would  do  so,  pro- 
vided he  would  give  me  a  new  text  made  under  my  super- 
vision." 

"  You  surprise  me,"  I  replied ;  "  did  not  Catulle  Mendes 
make  a  translation?  Surely  he  knows  French  and  German 
thoroughly." 

"  He  did  indeed,  but  " — turning  to  his  valet — "  bring  me 
'  Tristan  und  Isolde  '  from  the  piano."  He  opened  the  book 
and,  turning  to  the  page,  sang  "  Tristan's  Ehre,  hochste 
Treu' "  in  German  and  then  '  La  gloire  de  Tristan  "  with 
the  notes  of  "Ehre"  on  the  last  syllable  of  "Tristan." 
"  What  do  you  think  of  that  ?  No  ;  I'll  not  sing  such  stuff. 
I  must  make  a  literal  translation  note  for  note,  and  then  a 
poet  may  put  it  into  lines." 


CHAPTER  VI 
NEW  YORK'S  ANNUS  MIRABILIS 

OPERA  IN  NEW  YORK  AND  EUROPEAN  CAPITALS— A  STUDY  IN 
CONTRASTS— THE  COST  OF  OPERA  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN- 
ARTISTIC  DOINGS  IN  THE  SEASON  OF  1909-10— A  SEASON  AT 
THE  NEW  THEATER— THE  RUSSIAN  DANCERS  PAVLOVA  AND 
MORDKIN— A  LARGE  ROSTER  OF  SINGERS— UNFULFILLED 
PROMISES— THE  SEASON'S  NOVELTIES— LORTZING'S  "CZAR 
UND  ZIMMERMANN  "— PAER'S  "  LE  MAITRE  DE  CHAPELLE " 
—VICISSITUDES  OF  CLUCK'S  "  ORFEO  "—MILITARY  OPERAS— 
FRANCHETTI'S  "  GERMANIA "— BRUNEAU'S  "  L'ATTAQUE  DU 
MOULIN  "—RUSSIAN  OPERAS  IN  AMERICA—"  PIQUE  DAME  " 
— TSCHAIKOWSKY  AND  MOZART 

I  HAVE  already  told  the  story,  in  all  save  its  artistic  phases, 
of  the  contest  between  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company 
and  Mr.  Hammerstein  which  ended  with  the  retirement  at 
the  end  of  the  season  1909-10  of  the  latter  from  the  oper- 
atic field,  and,  for  a  reason  which  must  have  been  obvious, 
have  completed  it  with  an  account  of  Mr.  Hammerstein's 
discomfiture  when  he  attempted  to  return  to  operatic  man- 
agement later.  I  have  also  given  some  critical  attention  to 
the  artistic  activities  of  the  Metropolitan  Company  during 
the  first  year  of  its  reorganization  and  to  the  by  no  means 
inglorious  achievements  of  Mr.  Hammerstein  during  the 
last  two  years  of  the  Manhattan  Opera  House.  To  keep  the 
account  of  the  disastrous  rivalry  intact  I  was  obliged  to 
depart  from  a  strictly  chronological  procedure  in  the  his- 
torical narrative,  and  shall  be  constrained  to  do  so  again  in 
the  review  of  the  artistic  doings  of  the  Metropolitan  estab- 
lishment within  the  period  covering  the  incidents  which  I 
have  narrated,  which  is  the  business  of  the  present  chapter. 
I  shall  do  this  in  order  to  avoid,  so  far  as  is  possible,  monot- 
ony and  dryness  in  the  recital,  but  more  particularly  to  lift 

132 


OPERA  IN  NEW  YORK  AND  FOREIGN  CAPITALS        133 

into  deserved  prominence  a  few  things  which  loom  larger 
in  retrospect  than  they  did  in  contemporaneous  contempla- 
tion. Some  of  these  things  have  relation  to  efforts  made  to 
habilitate  English  opera  in  its  two  aspects  of  performances 
of  foreign  works  in  the  language  of  the  country  and  of  the 
production  of  the  works  of  American  composers.  Others 
were  factors  in  a  lofty,  even  an  idealistic,  striving  to  estab- 
lish an  alliance  between  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  and 
the  New  Theater  like  that  existing  in  Paris  between  the 
Academic  Royale,  popularly  called  the  Grand  Opera,  and 
the  Opera  Comique.  So  far  as  they  fell  within  the  scope 
of  these  memoirs  both  of  these  proved  abortive ;  but  both 
remain  as  ideals  toward  which,  haply,  a  wider  vision  opened 
by  the  universal  physical  and  cultural  struggle  which  is  now 
pending  will  eventually  be  directed.  To  opera  in  the  ver- 
nacular I  feel  that  a  special  chapter  is  due,  though  it  will  be 
necessary  to  refer  to  the  outcroppings  of  the  movement  as 
they  enter  chronologically  into  the  historical  narrative. 

There  remains  something  to  be  said  about  the  external 
features  of  the  season  in  which  the  rivalry  between  the 
Metropolitan  and  Manhattan  opera  houses  came  to  an  end. 
The  situation  which  it  presented  was  one  that  was  arti- 
ficially stimulated,  though  the  forces  which  lay  at  its  root 
have  existed  and  have  had  periodical  eruptions  in  the 
world's  capitals  as  long  as  opera  itself  has  existed.  New 
York  offers  historical  precedents  as  well  as  London  and 
Paris.  But  neither  of  the  foreign  cities  ever  produced  its 
parallel.  It  is  a  long  time  since  London  tried  the  experi- 
ment of  maintaining  two  fashionable  operatic  establishments 
at  the  same  time ;  yet  London  has  a  large  population,  great 
wealth,  a  hereditary  society  to  which  opera  has  belonged  as 
a  sort  of  privileged  entertainment.  It  is  nearer  to  New 
York  (or  New  York  is  nearer  to  it)  in  these  particulars,  as 
well  as  in  language  and  social  and  artistic  life,  than  any 
other  city  of  the  world.  Nevertheless  its  operatic  season  is, 
as  a  rule,  two  months  shorter  than  the  normal  season  in 


134  THE  RECORDS  OF  PARIS  AND  LONDON 

New  York,  and  in  the  corresponding  season  of  1909-10 
there  were  only  89  representations  devoted  to  21  operas  in 
the  British  capital,  whereas  New  York  heard  176  perform- 
ances of  43  operas.  Comparison  with  Paris,  Berlin,  Vienna 
and  St.  Petersburg,  as  I  pointed  out  in  an  article  published 
in  Collier's  Weekly  at  the  time,  is  made  difficult  by  reason 
of  the  different  conditions  which  prevail  at  their  lyric  thea- 
ter— those  of  them  which  approach  those  of  New  York  in 
magnitude  of  apparatus  and  seriousness  of  aim  being  gov- 
ernment institutions.  In  the  case  of  some  the  management 
is  an  affair  of  state  absolutely,  and  deficiencies  are  covered 
year  after  year  from  the  privy  purses  of  the  monarchs ;  in 
others,  notably  the  two  significant  institutions  in  Paris,  the 
lessees  receive  a  subvention  from  the  public  exchequer,  in 
return  for  which  they  are  obliged  to  submit  to  a  consider- 
able regulation  from  the  state.  In  all  these  cities,  however, 
there  is  no  limitation  of  the  season  to  five  months,  as  is  the 
case  in  New  York,  but  the  performances  go  on  practically 
all  the  year  round.  There  is,  moreover,  greater  variety  in 
the  character  of  the  representations.  Counting  operas  and 
ballets,  there  was  a  greater  number  of  performances  at  the 
two  official  lyric  theaters  of  Paris  in  1908,  the  last  year 
whose  official  figures  are  available,  than  in  the  New  York 
season  of  1909-10;  but  here  is  a  significant  fact:  the  com- 
bined receipts  of  the  Grand  Opera  and  Opera  Comique  did 
not  equal  those  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  during 
the  five  months  which  made  up  the  year  in  New  York.  The 
Grand  Opera,  to  be  explicit,  took  in  $626,000  in  the  twelve 
months  of  1908,  the  Opera  Comique  $498,800,  making  a 
total  of  $1,124,800.  If  the  receipts  of  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  from  November,  1909,  to  April,  1910,  did  not 
reach  this  sum  little  reliance  can  be  placed  on  the  state- 
ments which  were  made  from  time  to  time  during  the  period 
by  its  officials. 

This  is  a  large  amount  of  money  to  draw  from  the  people 
of  one  city  for  a  single  institution  of  amusement — using 


INCREASE  IN  THE  COST  OF  PRODUCTION         135 

that  term  in  its  most  dignified  sense.  But  to  it  must  be 
added  the  sum  taken  in  by  Mr.  Hammerstein's  Manhattan 
Opera  House  during  a  similar  period  of  twenty  weeks,  and 
to  make  the  comparison  complete  also  the  money  con- 
tributed by  the  public  for  a  preliminary  season  of  two 
months  of  opera  to  which  Mr.  Hammerstein  applied  the 
epithet  "  educational,"  and  some  weeks  of  a  vain  effort  to 
re-establish  the  Italian  form  in  its  old  home  at  the  Academy 
of  Music.  Both  seasons  failed,  but  the  mere  fact  that  they 
were  undertaken  with  the  regular  seasons  in  sight  proved 
that  the  managers  were  obsessed  with  the  idea  that  New 
York  was  harboring  such  a  passion  for  the  lyric  drama  as 
to  be  willing  to  put  into  the  exchequers  of  the  managers 
nearly  twice  as  much  money  as  had  ever  been  asked  of  any 
city  in  the  world,  regardless  of  its  size,  and  support  over  one 
hundred  concerts  of  magnitude  and  first-class  importance, 
and  some  sixty  theaters,  little  and  big,  besides. 

Since  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  opened  its  doors  to 
the  public  in  1883  the  cost  of  giving  opera  there  has  more 
than  quadrupled,  the  larger  part  of  the  increase  having 
grown  up  since  Mr.  Grau  laid  down  the  reins  of  manage- 
ment. In  1909  the  directors  of  the  lessee  company  cheer- 
fully announced  a  willingness  to  face  a  loss  of  at  least 
$300,000,  whereas  it  was  an  open  secret  that  the  closing 
years  of  the  administration  of  Maurice  Grau  and  the  open- 
ing years  of  Mr.  Conried's  had  yielded  revenues  which  en- 
abled those  gentlemen  to  retire  from  their  professional 
labors  with  fortunes  in  their  pockets.  The  largest  dividend 
which  the  stockholders  of  an  opera  company  ever  received, 
in  all  probability,  was  paid  in  the  last  year  of  the  Grau 
regime,  when  32  operas  were  brought  forward  in  the  sub- 
scription season.  In  the  season  which  we  have  in  mind, 
whose  losses  were  probably  greater  than  the  large  sum 
which  the  directors  faced  with  equanimity  a  year  before, 
nine  more  novelties  or  quasi-novelties  were  brought  for- 
ward, including  the  French  works  at  the  New  Theater ;  but 


136  CAUSES  OF  FINANCIAL  LOSS 

there  was  what  should  have  been  an  extra  source  of  in- 
come— namely,  the  New  Theater  itself.  It  is  therefore  not 
to  be  wondered  at  that  critics  of  knowledge  and  experience 
have  continued  to  look  back  with  regret  as  well  as  admira- 
tion to  the  time  when  great  works,  new  to  the  repertory, 
were  brought  forward  with  devotion  and  beauty  at  the  Met- 
ropolitan Opera  House,  and  old  works  were  performed  with 
a  vocal  splendor  never  equaled  since. 

There  were  many  explanations  offered  when  both  an  artis- 
tic and  financial  credit  were  changed  into  a  debit ;  but  there 
has  never  been  a  doubt  in  the  minds  of  experienced  observ- 
ers but  that  too  small  knowledge  and  appreciation  of  artistic 
needs,  too  little  understanding  of  artistic  methods,  and  too 
mean  an  appreciation  of  the  wishes  of  the  judicious  public 
combined  with  too  willing  a  deference  to  the  whims  of  a 
few  fashionables  and  amateurs,  too  great  a  disregard  of 
the  rights  of  some  of  the  stockholders  of  the  operating 
company,  too  large  a  complacency  on  the  part  of  the  owners 
of  the  opera  house,  too  much  disregard  of  the  things  which 
make  for  public  respect  and  permanency  of  interest,  and — 
finally  and  chiefly — too  eager  a  desire  to  destroy  the  oppo- 
sition of  Mr.  Hammerstein,  were  the  principal  contributory 
causes  to  so  much  of  the  Metropolitan's  season  as  must  be 
voted  an  artistic  failure. 

It  seemed  difficult  at  the  time,  it  is  difficult  still,  to  make 
the  claim  of  the  enormous  losses  suffered  by  the  managers 
due  to  increase  in  the  cost  of  giving  opera  agree  with  cer- 
tain well-known  facts.  Least  of  all  does  it  seem  wise  or 
righteous  to  charge  this  increase  to  the  rapacity  of  singers. 
Mr.  Grau  made  money  enough  in  the  last  three  or  four  years 
of  his  administration  to  retire  with  a  fortune,  though  Jean 
de  Reszke  at  the  last  cost  him  as  much  as  Caruso  has  ever 
cost  the  Metropolitan  management — at  least,  as  far  as  remu- 
neration went — and  Grau  paid  artists  like  Sembrich,  Eames, 
Calve,  Plangon,  and  Edouard  de  Reszke  besides.  Mr.  Con- 
ried's  first  seasons  were  also  notoriously  profitable.  Of 


THE  METROPOLITAN  SEASON  1909-10  137 

course  the  doubling  of  the  chorus  and  orchestra  added 
greatly  to  the  cost  of  the  establishment,  but  it  was  this 
doubling  which  made  it  possible  to  give  opera  in  other 
places  which  were  a  source  of  profit,  not  of  loss  to  the  in- 
stitution. There  was  a  report  that  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
Company  lost  $135,000  on  the  venture  in  the  New  Theater, 
but  a  deficit  of  an  average  of  nearly  $3,400  a  perform- 
ance is  scarcely  conceivable.  In  Brooklyn  the  season  was 
profitable  to  both  the  Metropolitan  Company  and  the  stock- 
holders of  the  Academy  of  Music,  who  played  in  partner- 
ship; in  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore  there  were  guarantees 
which  saved  the  company  from  loss  and  probably  yielded 
a  profit.  In  New  York  it  was  said  at  the  outset  of  the 
season  that  the  subscription  had  been  the  largest  ever  known 
in  the  history  of  the  house.  It  would  seem  to  be  obvious, 
therefore,  that  the  increase  of  cost  was  in  the  administra- 
tion and  the  artists  ought  to  be  held  guiltless.  But  I  feel 
little  inclined  to  concern  myself  with  financial  matters  more 
than  I  must  in  trying  to  set  down  the  history  of  this  ex- 
traordinary operatic  year. 

The  season  of  the  Metropolitan  Company  which  has  called 
forth  this  long,  but  I  hope  not  purposeless  excursion,  began 
on  November  15,  1909,  and  ended  on  April  2,  1910,  and 
comprised  twenty  weeks.  But  these  twenty  weeks  of  the 
local  subscription  period,  with  its  five  performances  a  week, 
did  not  by  any  means  sum  up  the  activities  of  the  company ; 
there  was  also  a  subscription  series  of  twenty  representa- 
tions in  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn,  a  subscription  season  of 
two  representations  a  week  for  twenty  weeks  at  the  New 
Theater  in  Central  Park  West,  many  special  performances 
(for  which,  as  for  a  summary,  reference  is  made  to  the 
Appendix)  and  subscription  seasons  in  Philadelphia,  Balti- 
more, and  Boston,  which,  though  they  do  not  belong  to  the 
local  record,  belong  to  local  history  because  of  their  con- 
nection with  the  story  of  the  rivalry  of  the  company  with 
Mr.  Hammerstein  and  the  influence  which  they  had  on  the 


138         AN  EXPERIMENT  AT  THE  NEW  THEATER 

home  performances.  The  first  representation  of  the  com- 
pany took  place  in  Brooklyn  on  November  8,  and  before 
the  season  opened  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  per- 
formances had  already  been  given  in  Philadelphia  and  Balti- 
more, which  cities  eventually  heard  twenty  performances 
each.  The  Boston  performances  were  eleven  in  number,  five 
in  January  and  six  in  the  last  week  of  March.  After  this 
labor  there  remained  before  the  company  a  Western  tour 
and  a  visit  to  Atlanta,  Ga.,  which  had  become  the  home 
of  an  annual  opera  festival.  The  season  began  with  a 
proclamation  of  harmonious  co-operation  between  the  Man- 
aging Director  Mr.  Gatti-Casazza,  with  the  Administrative 
Director,  Mr.  Dippel,  and  ended  with  the  departure  of 
the  latter  for  a  new  field  of  operations  which  had  been 
opened  for  him  by  the  organization  of  the  Chicago-Phila- 
delphia Opera  Company.  There  he  remained  for  a  year, 
after  which  he  embarked  upon  the  sea  of  theatrical  specu- 
lation as  manager  of  an  operetta  company.  The  perform- 
ances at  the  New  Theater  were  given  on  alternate  Tuesday 
and  Fridays  evenings  and  Wednesday  and  Thursday  after- 
noons, and  were  in  pursuance  of  a  high  and  beautiful  pur- 
pose which  had  actuated  the  founders  of  the  institution, 
viz.  to  provide  a  home  for  a  high  type  of  comic  opera  as 
well  as  the  best  type  of  spoken  drama.  The  operas  given 
were  lighter  in  character  than  those  which  made  up  the 
list  of  the  parent  house,  embracing  specimens  of  opera 
botiffe  as  well  as  German  Singspicl  and  some  of  them  re- 
ceived representations  also  at  the  Metropolitan.  The  sea- 
son at  the  new  and  beautiful  playhouse  offered  much  that 
was  valuable  and  interesting  and  had  the  experiment  been 
undertaken  under  any  other  than  the  conditions  prevail- 
ing at  the  time  which  compelled  competition  not  only  with 
the  Metropolitan  but  also  with  the  Manhattan  Opera  House, 
it  might  have  proven  a  success  and  done  much  toward  a 
stabilization  of  the  art-form  in  the  American  metropolis ;  as 
it  was  it  turned  out  to  be  a  disastrous  failure  from  a  popular 


OPERA  AND  THE  RUSSIAN  DANCERS  139 

and  financial  point  of  view.     The  causes  scarcely  need  in- 
quiry; they  are  too  obvious. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  season  there  was  an  unusual  num- 
ber of  double  and  even  triple  bills  at  both  houses,  the  rea- 
son being  that  the  Russian  dancers  Pavlova  and  Mordkin, 
who  had  been  engaged  for  the  month  of  March,  proved  to 
be  so  popular  and  exerted  so  much  greater  an  attractive 
power  than  any  opera  or  combination  of  singers  that  the 
management  learned  that  it  could  throw  artistic  integrity 
and  promises  to  the  winds  even  in  the  department  on  which 
it  had  laid  considerable  stress  in  the  prospectus.  The  bal- 
let programme  went  largely  by  the  board.  "  Vienna 
Waltzes,"  which  had  figured  in  the  preliminary  announce- 
ment, was  performed  but  once,  and  then  only  because  the 
German  Press  Club,  which  had  bargained  for  it  for  its 
annual  benefit,  insisted  upon  having  it.  "  Die  Puppenfee," 
"  Sylvia,"  "  Les  Sylphides,"  and  "  Chopin,"  though  on  the 
list,  were  not  given,  short  divertissements  after  long  operas 
taking  their  place.  Operatic  novelties  promised  but  not 
performed  were  Leo  Blech's  "  Versiegelt,"  Goetzl's 
"  Les  Precieuses  ridicules,"  Goldmark's  "  Cricket  on 
the  Hearth,"  Humperdinck's  "  Konigskinder,"  Laparra's 
"Habanera,"  Lehar's  "  Zigeunerliebe "  ("Amour  des 
Tziganes"),  Leroux's  "  Chemineau,"  Maillart's  "Les 
Dragons  de  Villars,"  Offenbach's  "  Contes  d'Hoffmann," 
Rossini's  "  Signor  Bruschino,"  Suppe's  "  Schone  Galathea," 
and  Wolf -Ferrari's  "  Le  Donne  curiose."  The  operas  which 
had  a  first  production  in  New  York,  either  at  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  House  or  the  New  Theater,  were  Fran- 
chetti's  "  Germania,"  Tschaikowsky's  "  Pique  Dame,"  Mr. 
Converse's  "  Pipe  of  Desire,"  Bruneau's  "  L'Attaque  du 
Moulin  "  and  Pae'r's  "  II  Maestro  di  Capella,"  the  last  in 
an  abbreviated  form.  To  these  works  I  shall  recur  pres- 
ently. In  familiar  operas  the  public  was  permitted  to  see 
new  impersonations  of  Elsa,  Floria  Tosca,  and  Santuzza 
by  Mme.  Fremstad  and  Floria  Tosca  by  Miss  Farrar. 


140  METROPOLITAN  FORCES  AUGMENTED 

Notable  achievements  from  an  artistic  point  of  view  v/ere 
representations  of  "  Tristan  und  Isolde  "  and  "  Die  Meister- 
singer "  under  the  direction  of  Signor  Toscanini  and 
"  Pique  Dame  "  under  that  of  Herr  Mahler,  who  had  been 
engaged  for  a  limited  number  of  performances  only  and 
who  after  the  season  was  over  devoted  himself  wholly 
to  the  direction  of  the  concerts  of  the  Philharmonic 
Society. 

The  roster  of  singers  was  a  formidable  one  for  a  reason 
explained  in  the  prospectus :  the  inclusion  in  the  company's 
plan  of  performances  in  Brooklyn,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 
and  Boston  as  well  as  at  the  New  Theater  and  on  the  cus- 
tomary spring  tour  "  so  widened  the  scope  of  the  opera- 
tions of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  as  to  require 
an  extraordinary  number  of  artists."  As  compared  with 
the  season  of  1898-99,  when  Mr.  Grau  first  attempted  to 
give  opera  in  the  original  version  in  three  languages,  said 
the  prospectus,  the  personnel  had  been  increased  from  36 
soloists  to  nearly  100,  the  orchestra  from  65  to  more  than 
150,  the  chorus  from  75  to  180.  The  company  now  pos- 
sessed facilities  to  give  two  performances  a  day  and  also 
had  a  working  agreement  with  the  Boston  Opera  Com- 
pany for  an  interchange  of  singers.  In  the  old  and  ap- 
proved list  were  found  the  names  of  Frances  Alda,  Emmy 
Destinn,  Geraldine  Farrar,  Olive  Fremstad,  Johanna  Gad- 
ski,  Louise  Homer,  Lillian  Nordica,  Alessandro  Bonci, 
Enrico  Caruso,  Riccardo  Martin,  Albert  Reiss,  Pasquale 
Amato,  Otto  Goritz,  Antonio  Scotti,  Adamo  Didur,  Robert 
Blass,  Allan  Hinckley,  and  Herbert  Witherspoon.  To  these 
were  added  a  large  number  of  newcomers,  many  of  them 
Americans,  engaged,  no  doubt,  with  an  eye  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  New  Theater,  like  most  of  the  new  operas. 
Every  prospectus  before  and  since  has  contained  names 
which  loom  much  larger  in  that  document  than  they  loomed 
in  the  house-bills  subsequently,  and  the  readers,  can  well  be 
spared  an  enumeration  of  all  the  strangers  who  figured 


CLAREXCE  \\~HITEHILL 
As  Escamillo  in  "Carmen" 


VAIN  PROMISES  OF  FRENCH  OPERAS  141 

in  this  season's  list,  contenting  themselves  with  Anna  Case, 
Alma  Gluck,  Alice  Neilsen,  Jane  Osborn-Hannah,  Mariska 
Aldrich,  Marie  Delna,  Jeanne  Maubourg,  Edouard  Clement 
(who,  like  Mme.  Delna,  had  been  an  ornament  of  the 
Paris  stage),  Hermann  Jadlowker,  Leo  Slezak,  Dinh  Gilly, 
and  Clarence  Whitehill.  The  conductors  were  Arturo  Tos- 
canini,  Alfred  Hertz,  and  Gustave  Mahler,  the  assistant 
conductors  Vittorio  Podesti,  Egisto  Tango,  and  Max  Ben- 
dix.  An  announcement  which  became  a  stereotyped  formula 
in  the  Metropolitan  prospectus,  and  has  been  found  to  have 
no  value  or  significance  so  far  as  the  public  is  concerned, 
told  that  the  company  had  bought  the  "  sole  and  exclusive 
producing  rights  for  America  of  three  operas  by  Debussy, 
viz.  '  La  Chute  de  la  Maison  Usher,'  '  Le  Diable  dans  le 
Beffroi,'  and  '  La  Legende  de  Tristan.' "  The  composer  is 
dead  and  we  have  not  yet  heard  anything  of  these  scores 
beyond  this  seemingly  idle  announcement  and  the  intima- 
tion that  not  one  of  them  was  written.  Another  statement 
deserves  quotation :  "  As  heretofore  the  operas  will  be  sung 
in  French,  German,  and  Italian,  and  the  long-expressed  de- 
sire to  produce  grand  opera  in  the  ENGLISH  LANGUAGE  with 
an  all-star  cast  will  positively  see  its  fulfilment  during  the 
season."  Back  of  this  utterance  were  two  facts :  the  prom- 
ise to  produce  Mr.  Frederick  S.  Converse's  opera  "  The 
Pipe  of  Desire,"  which  had  been  made  and  left  unfulfilled 
in  the  preceding  season,  was  to  be  redeemed  and  attention 
was  invited  to  the  competition  then  in  progress  among 
American  authors  and  composers  for  an  original  opera  in 
the  English  language  for  which  a  prize  of  $10,000  had  been 
offered  by  the  Metropolitan  Company  in  December,  1908. 
The  story  of  that  competition  and  the  award  I  purpose  to 
relate  in  a  subsequent  chapter  where  it  can  be  brought  into 
perspective  with  other  incidents  in  the  campaign  for  ver- 
nacular opera,  which  is  as  old  in  New  York  as  opera  itself 
— a  fact  to  which  managers  and  composers  obstinately  keep 
their  eyes  shut. 


142  A  CZAR  AS  SHIPWRIGHT 

The  season  had  been  in  progress  for  a  fortnight  when 
the  first  quasi-novelty  was  brought  forward  at  the  New 
Theater,  which  gave  a  rich  and  beautiful  setting  to  the 
audience  and  the  piece,  but  was  found  to  be  defective 
acoustically,  a  fault  which  was  partially  remedied  the  next 
season.  The  work  was  Lortzing's  "  Czar  und  Zimmer- 
mann,"  which  was  performed  in  the  original  German.  Here 
was  a  case  in  which  a  foreign  work  might  have  made  a 
deeper  impression  on  an  American  audience  than  it  did 
had  it  been  given  in  English ;  but  to  do  that  it  would  have 
had  to  be  provided  with  a  better  translation  than  is  usually 
bestowed  upon  foreign  operas  and  the  spirit  of  the  comedy 
and  music  been  more  faithfully  preserved  than  it  was  by 
some  of  the  performers.  Lortzing's  Singspiel  is  a  classic — 
bewitchingly  Mozartian  in  its  music  and  altogether  delight- 
ful in  its  comedy.  Its  subject — the  familiar  episode  in  the 
life  of  Peter  the  Great  which  tells  of  how  he  learned  to 
appreciate  the  feelings  of  the  "  plain  people,"  as  Lincoln 
called  them,  by  working  in  a  Dutch  shipyard  as  a  common 
carpenter — has  appealed  to  many  composers,  but  has  never 
been  treated  so  successfully  by  any  lyric  dramatist  as  by 
Lortzing.  The  opera  had  been  brought  forward  at  long 
intervals  in  New  York  in  its  original  form  as  well  as  in 
English  dress  but  never  quite  adequately,  which  was  one 
reason  why  it  appealed  to  the  New  Theater  audience  as  a 
new  and  beautiful  thing.  It  received  four  performances  in 
the  season.  The  New  Theater  was  also  first  in  the  field 
with  the  first  real  novelty  of  the  year,  albeit  a  rather  trifling 
one.  This  was  an  abbreviation,  done  into  Italian,  of  Fer- 
nando Paer's  little  masterpiece  entitled  "  Le  Maitre  de 
Chapelle"  (in  Italian  "II  Maestro  di  Capella").  The 
piece  was  written  for  the  Theatre  Feydeau  a  century  ago. 
Paer  was  an  Italian,  but  his  principal  work  was  done  out- 
side of  his  native  land — in  Vienna,  where  he  brought  forth 
his  "  Camilla,"  in  which  Rossini  played  a  child's  part  when 
he  was  only  seven  years  old;  in  Dresden,  where  he  pro- 


"  IL  MAESTRO  DI  CAPELLA  "  143 

duced  "  Leonora,  ossia  1'amore  conjugate,"  the  book  of 
which  a  year  later  Beethoven  and  his  collaborators  turned 
into  "  Fidelio " ;  in  Paris,  where  as  Napoleon's  chapel- 
master,  conductor  of  the  Italian  Opera,  and  Rossini's  asso- 
ciate he  did  good  work  but  nothing  comparable  with  the 
sparkling  opera  comique  which  in  a  transmogrified  form 
the  people  in  the  New  Theater  heard  on  this  occasion.  A 
puissant  personality  in  his  day  the  present  generation  would 
probably  never  have  heard  of  him  if  Signer  Pini-Corsi,  the 
basso-buffo  of  the  Metropolitan  company,  had  not  revived 
an  abbreviated  Italian  version  of  it  in  order  to  display  his 
amiable  musical  buffooneries.  The  little  comedy  (what 
was  left  of  it)  was  musically  as  sparkling  as  champagne 
but  with  as  sound  and  sweet  a  body  as  the  best  vintage  of 
Johannisberg.  The  play  is  all  about  a  music-master  of 
the  old  type  who  has  written  a  lyric  piece  on  the  subject 
of  Antony  and  Cleopatra  and  teaches  his  cook  how  to  sing 
it,  telling  the  audience  meanwhile  of  the  musical  devices, 
vocal  and  instrumental,  which  he  has  employed  in  its  score. 
Pini-Corsi  played  the  composer  and  Miss  Alma  Gluck  the 
cook,  and  it  was  difficult  to  say  whether  the  veteran  buffo 
or  the  fresh  young  novice  deserved  the  greater  admira- 
tion. It  was  practically  Miss  Gluck's  debut  in  opera,  and 
while  the  buffo  kept  the  sides  of  all  who  understood  him 
aching  with  laughter  by  his  song  and  action  Miss  Gluck 
delighted  both  sight  and  hearing  by  her  piquant  play,  her 
lovely  voice,  and  her  thrice  admirable  singing.  But  if  "  Le 
Maitre  de  Chapelle  "  was  to  be  presented  in  translation, 
why  did  we  not  have  it  in  English?  What  a  lesson  for 
the  composers  of  operetta  in  the  vernacular!  As  for  the 
music  Rossini  himself  would  have  been  proud  of  it,  which, 
I  make  no  doubt,  excited  his  envy.  The  fragment  was 
consorted  in  the  performance  with  Mascagni's  ferocious 
"  Cavalleria  Rusticana  "  and  a  set  of  dances  in  character  by 
Rita  Sacchetto. 

There  was  nothing  in  the  performances  at  the  Metro- 


144  REVIVAL  OF  GLUCK'S  "  ORFEO  " 

politan  Opera  House  to  invite  special  comment  until  De- 
cember 23,  when  Gluck's  "  Orfeo  ed  Euridice  "  was  pro- 
duced under  the  direction  of  Signer  Toscanini  with  new 
stage-settings  and  the  parts  in  the  hands  of  Louise  Homer 
(Orfeo),  Johanna  Gadski  (Euridice),  Bella  Alten  (Amore), 
and  Alma  Gluck  (Un  Ombra  felice).  So  far  as  America 
is  concerned  "  Orfeo  "  is  the  oldest  opera  in  the  current  list 
— the  oldest  opera  and  one  bearing  a  much-needed  lesson 
which,  it  is  greatly  to  be  feared,  is  not  yet  appreciated 
at  its  full  value  because  of  the  perverted  taste  of  the 
operatic  public  for  music  so  highly  spiced  with  dissonance 
and  mongrel  tone  that  the  original  mission  of  the  art  has 
been  forgotten  and  its  potency  dissipated  because  of  the 
prevalence  of  a  taste  for  pruriency,  lust,  and  the  shambles. 
There  was  nothing  of  all  this  in  this  revival,  but  much  love- 
liness of  scenic  spectacle  and  much  beautiful  music  grateful 
to  the  ear,  warming  to  the  emotions,  and  powerfully  appeal- 
ing to  the  imagination.  It  is  no  extravagance  of  speech  to 
say  that  for  the  first  time  the  present  generation  of  opera- 
goers  in  New  York  were  privileged  to  enjoy  a  performance 
of  the  opera  with  which  the  operatic  reforms  culminating 
in  Wagner's  works  began,  which  was  worthy  of  the  poet, 
the  composer,  the  institution  at  which  it  was  presented,  and 
also  of  the  beautiful  old  legend — in  short,  an  adequate  per- 
formance. Old  opera-goers  in  New  York  whose  memories 
go  back  sixty  years  might  be  able  to  recall  not  only  all  the 
representations  which  "  Orfeo  "  has  had  in  New  York,  but 
also  the  very  first  performance  of  an  opera  by  Gluck  in 
America,  for  "  Orfeo  "  was  the  only  one  of  the  composer's 
works  that  up  to  then  had  been  seen  in  the  theater  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  Time  and  again,  especially  in  the  old 
days  of  German  opera  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House, 
there  was  talk  of  producing  "  Armide  "  or  one  of  the  "  Iphi- 
genias,"  but  talk  was  all  that  came  of  it.  Excerpts  from 
"  Alceste  "  had  been  sung  at  the  music  festivals  in  Cincin- 
nati, but  "  Orfeo "  had  provided  the  only  opportunities 


ALMA  GLUCK 
As   the  Blessed   Shade   in   "Orfeo" 


HISTORY  OF  THE  OPERA  IN  NEW  YORK  145 

which  Americans  had  had  to  learn  of  the  dramatic  quality 
of  the  artist  who  cleared  the  path  down  which  Wagner 
walked  to  glory.  The  first  performance  of  "  Orfeo  "  in 
New  York  was  in  English  and  took  place  at  the  Winter  Gar- 
den on  May  25,  1863.  Mile.  Felicita  Vestvali  was  the  rep- 
sentative  of  the  mythical  bard,  and  Carl  Anschiitz  con- 
ducted the  performance.  For  the  details  of  that  perform- 
ance the  reader  must  be  referred  to  other  sources;  they 
are  outside  my  ken.  My  knowledge,  however,  easily  goes 
back  to  a  revival  which,  while  it  can  not  be  recalled  without 
a  smile  at  some  of  its  features,  must  yet  be  remembered 
with  gratitude.  On  January  8,  1886,  the  American  Opera 
Company  produced  the  opera  in  English  at  the  Academy  of 
Music,  and  between  that  date  and  the  end  of  March  per- 
formed it  ten  times  in  New  York  and  three  times  in  Brook- 
lyn. Mme.  Helene  Hastreiter  was  the  Orpheus  of  these 
performances,  and  Miss  Emma  Juch  the  Eurydice ;  Theo- 
dore Thomas  conducted.  The  opera  was  tastefully  staged 
and  a  fine  intelligence  marked  all  the  scenes  and  tableaus  up 
to  the  final  ballet,  the  culminating  feature  of  which  was  a 
Bacchic  procession  seemingly  conjured  up  by  Orpheus  for 
the  diversion  of  the  denizens  of  Elysium.  This  incongruity 
was  forgotten,  however,  in  the  absurdities  which  marked 
the  productions  of  the  opera  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House  previous  to  the  one  under  discussion.  The  first  of 
them  took  place  on  December  30,  1891,  when  "  Orfeo  "  was 
given  in  Italian  as  a  companion  piece  to  "  Cavalleria  Rusti- 
cana."  Here  was  contrast  with  a  vengeance !  But  that 
was  not  all.  "  Orfeo's  "  stage-furniture  was  the  most  ab- 
surd jumble  of  ancient  pagan  and  mediaeval  Christian 
notions  ever  conceived.  The  underworld  of  the  Greeks  was 
represented  by  the  hell  of  "  Asrael  "  which  had  come  over 
to  Mr.  Abbey  from  the  German  regime.  At  the  Academy 
of  Music  we  had  seen  Ixion,  Tantalus,  and  the  other  fabled 
heroes  of  Hades  suspending  their  labors  while  the  song  of 
Orpheus  enriched  the  atmosphere  of  their  prison  house ; 


I46  ABSURD  STAGE-SETTINGS 

but  now  we  saw  only  the  flames  of  the  hell  of  mediaeval 
theologians,  the  ascending  smoke  of  torment,  and  scores  of 
capering  red  devils.  The  Elysian  Fields  were  the  magic  gar- 
dens of  Merlin  (borrowed  from  Goldmark's  opera  of  that 
name),  with  their  tropical  forest  vegetation  of  the  carbonif- 
erous era,  a  sea  in  the  background  and  golden-winged  cheru- 
bim and  seraphim  to  keep  company  with  Eurydice  and  her 
associates  of  terpsichorean  proclivities,  who  expressed  the 
whole  gamut  of  their  emotions  by  standing  on  their  toes. 
The  sisters  Giulia  and  Sophia  Ravogli,  who  in  some  inex- 
plicable way  had  won  praise  for  their  performance  in  Lon- 
don, were  the  inspiring  cause  of  this  revival.  It  endured 
for  four  representations,  largely  because  it  was  associated 
with  Mascagni's  opera,  which  had  been  introduced  to  the 
stage  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  with  it.  In  the 
season  of  1893-94,  "  Orfeo  "  returned  to  the  stage  of  the 
Metropolitan  in  the  company  of  another  hot-blooded  little 
drama  which  since  then  has  formed  a  lasting  companion- 
ship with  Mascagni's.  On  December  u,  1893,  ^  was  given 
as  a  curtain-raiser  for  "  Pagliacci."  Neither  stage-manager 
nor  ballet-master  disclosed  a  glimmer  of  intelligence  touch- 
ing the  opera.  Now  the  underworld  was  a  sort  of  modified 
wolf's-glen  abounding  with  grinning  skulls  lighted  up  from 
within  like  the  illuminated  pumpkin  of  the  Headless  Horse- 
man. The  Elysian  Fields  were  in  cloudland,  the  blessed 
shades  were  a  mixed  company  of  Sunday-school  angels, 
Amazons  from  Niblo's  Garden,  and  short-skirted,  bespan- 
gled dancers,  all  of  whose  emotions  were  also  in  their  toes. 
Though  Mme.  Scalchi  sang  the  music  of  Orpheus,  there  was 
but  one  performance ;  and  that  was  quite  enough,  as  every 
one  agreed.  Once  more  Gluck's  opera  suffered  the  degra- 
dation of  being  drafted  to  kill  time  before  the  introduction 
of  a  novelty — this  time  Massenet's  "  Navarraise,"  on  De- 
cember n,  1895.  Mme.  Brema  appeared  in  the  titular  role, 
and  Mme.  Calve  introduced  the  gunpowder  opera,  which 
had  been  written  for  her  by  MM.  Cain  and  Massenet. 


A  NEW  AND  BEAUTIFUL  OUTFIT  147 

"  Navarraise  "  lived  through  five  performances,  but  "  Or- 
feo  "  died  on  the  first  night. 

Died  and  slept  the  sleep  of  death  until  its  lovely  resur- 
rection under  circumstances  now  to  be  detailed.  For  this 
resurrection  the  thanks  of  every  sincere  lover  of  dramatic 
music  is  due  to  the  management  and  Signer  Toscanini. 
There  was  much  in  the  representation  to  call  out  laudatory 
comment.  The  scenic  outfit  was  beautiful  and  appropriate. 
It  scarcely  needed  the  affecting  music  of  the  first  scene  to 
attune  susceptible  persons  to  the  melting  mood;  the  pic- 
ture seized  upon  the  imagination  and  emotions  at  once. 
This  picture,  like  that  of  the  third  scene  representing  the 
Elysian  Fields,  was  an  artistic  triumph.  Both  had  models 
in  the  beautiful  revival  which  Gluck's  opera  had  had  in  re- 
cent years  in  Paris.  Puvis  de  Chavannes  might  have  painted 
the  models.  The  serenity  of  Greek  loveliness  rested  upon 
the  glade  in  which  Eurydice  was  laid  to  rest  and  upon  the 
mead  over  which  the  blessed  shades  wandered  through  an 
atmosphere  burdened  with  the  song  of  the  mythical  min- 
strel. Strong  in  contrast,  but  not  less  appealing  to  the  fancy, 
were  the  pictures  at  the  entrance  and  exit  of  Hades.  More 
might  have  been  expected  of  the  choreographic  scenes  than 
was  offered,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  so  much  attention  had 
recently  been  given  to  the  so-called  revival  of  classic  danc- 
ing; but  it  was  a  refreshment  to  see  something  else  than 
the  conventional  pirouetting  of  former  times.  Mr.  Tosca- 
nini's  treatment  of  the  music  was  reverential ;  more  than 
reverential — it  was  loving;  and  his  spirit  had  its  counter- 
part in  that  of  Mme.  Homer.  Hers  was  a  lovely  impersona- 
tion— lovely  to  the  eye,  in  figure,  pose,  movement,  gesture, 
and  equally  lovely  in  voice  and  song.  She  had  an  admirable 
companion  in  Miss  Gluck,  who  sang  "  In  quest'  asilo  "  with 
exquisite  taste.  To  close  the  first  act  Mme.  Homer  sang 
an  Italian  version  of  "  Divinites  du  Styx"  from  Gluck's 
"  Alceste,"  following,  at  Signer  Toscanini's  suggestion,  a 
plan  adopted  at  the  revival  of  the  work  at  the  Theatre  de  la 


148      INTERPOLATION  OF  AN  AIR  FROM  "ALCESTE" 

Monnaie  in  Brussels  in  1893.  It  required  only  the  change 
of  a  word  to  make  the  interpolation  appear  apposite  to  the 
occasion,  for  the  situations  in  the  two  operas  are  very  much 
alike.  But  there  are  objections  of  considerable  cogency  to 
be  urged  against  the  device.  For  one  thing,  Orpheus  had 
only  a  moment  before  given  utterance  to  an  invocation  of 
the  deities  of  the  underworld  in  a  dramatic  recitative  and 
announced  his  intention  to  conquer  them  with  the  sight  of 
his  grief  and  tears.  Alkestis  addresses  her  invocation  to 
the  Stygian  ministers  to  whom  she  is  about  to  offer  herself 
as  a  sacrifice  for  a  husband  not  yet  dead.  Here  was  a  dra- 
matic point  which  should  have  been  considered.  There  was 
also  an  objection  pertinent  from  a  musical  point  of  view.. 
The  orchestration  of  "  Orfeo "  is  extremely  continent 
throughout,  the  impressive  trombones  being  used  sparingly 
and  only  to  emphasize  great  effects,  like  the  "  No !  "  which 
the  Furies  hurl  at  Orpheus  when  first  he  appeals  to  their 
pity ;  but  in  the  air  from  "  Alceste  "  trombones  and  trumpet 
are  much  in  the  foreground.  The  introduction  of  this  air 
recalls  a  singular  incident  in  musical  history.  Originally 
the  first  act  of  the  opera  ended  with  a  recitative.  When 
Gluck  carried  it  to  Paris  he  recognized  that,  however  dra- 
matic propriety  might  be  served  by  such  an  ending,  it  was 
musically  a  lame  and  impotent  conclusion.  So  he  intro- 
duced the  air  beginning  "  Addio,  addio,  O  miei  sospiri," 
which  Berlioz  retained  in  the  version  made  for  the  Theatre 
Lyrique  in  1859,  although  he  felt,  as  every  discriminating 
critic  has  felt  from  the  beginning,  that  the  style  of  the  air 
was  too  archaic  to  fit  into  the  rest  of  the  score.  Though  it 
was  known  that  Gluck  had  himself  introduced  the  air,  sus- 
picion was  aroused  touching  its  authenticity,  and  this  was 
turned  into  conviction  by  Berlioz's  statement  that  the  music 
was  unquestionably  that  of  an  air  composed  by  an  Italian 
named  Bertoni  for  his  opera  "  Tancredo,"  which  Berlioz 
said  he  had  seen  in  the  Italian's  score  and  which  the  Italian 
averred  to  be  his  in  a  letter  which  Berlioz  printed.  And 


PRODUCTION  OF  "  GERMANIA  "  149 

this  remained  the  conviction  of  the  world  until  some  fifteen 
years  or  so  ago,  when  M.  Tiersot  established  the  fact  that 
the  air  was  not  Bertoni's  but  Gluck's  and  had  been  taken 
from  the  latter's  opera  "  Aristeo,"  produced  at  Parma  in 
1769.  This  does  not  meet  the  objection  raised  by  the  old- 
fashioned,  undramatic  character  of  the  air,  for  "  Aristeo  " 
was  written  seven  years  after  "  Orfeo  "  and  the  opera  is  an 
obvious  reversion  to  the  old  manner  which  critical  historians 
would  have  us  believe  Gluck  forever  put  aside  when  he 
wrote  "  Orfeo."  When  Mr.  Thomas  produced  the  opera 
with  the  American  Opera  Company  he  omitted  the  air, 
though  Mr.  Chorley  and  Mr.  Halle  had  included  it  in  their 
English  paraphrase  which  Mr.  Thomas  used.  On  January 
29,  1910,  the  opera  was  given  at  the  Metropolitan  with  the 
admirable  Marie  Delna  in  the  part  of  "  Orfeo."  Though 
Signor  Toscanini  had  introduced  the  air  from  "  Alceste  " 
for  Mme.  Homer,  he  permitted  Mme.  Delna  to  interpolate 
in  its  place  an  air  from  Gluck's  "  Echo  et  Narcisse."  Its 
sentiment  is  one  of  those  noncommittal  expressions  which 
serve  in  any  moment  of  tragic  perplexity  in  the  old-fash- 
ioned lyric ;  but  it  was  shorter  and  made  an  effective  ending. 
On  January  22,  1910,  "  Germania,"  an  opera  by  Luigi 
Illica  and  Alberto  Franchetti,  was  performed  for  the  first 
time  in  America  with  this  distribution  of  parts : 

Giovanni  Filip  Palm  Giulio  Rossi 

Frederico  Loewe Enrico  Caruso 

Carlo  Worms    Pasquale  Amato 

Crisogono    Antonio  Pini-Corsi 

Ricke    Emmy   Destinn 

Jane   : .  . . .    Christine  Heliane 

Lena  Armuth   Marie  Mattfeld 

Jebbel    Leonora  Sparkes 

Stapps  Adamo  Didur 

Luigi  Adolfo  Guglielmo  Liitzow  Paolo  Wulman 

Carlo  Teodoro  Korner  Ludovico  Nepoti 

Hedwig    Marie    Mattfeld 

Peters    Aristide   Baracchi 

Captain  of  the  German  Police   Eduardo  Missiano 

A  Lady  Florence  Wickham 

A  Youth  .  .  Rita  Barillo 


ISO  STAGE  DIRECTIONS  FOR  THE  CLOSET 

There  are  good  reasons  for  thinking  that  Signor  Fran- 
chetti  had  more  to  do  than  is  ordinarily  the  case  with  the 
composition  of  the  book  of  "  Germania."  Illica  is  librettist- 
in-ordinary  to  the  composers  of  Italy.  He  can  turn  his 
hand  to  any  subject  and  produce  a  serviceable  book  with  or 
without  local  color  at  a  moment's  notice ;  but  he  must  have 
had  some  special  inducement  to  produce  a  libretto  like  that 
of  this  opera,  which  was  obviously  written  as  much  for  con- 
sumption in  the  study  as  for  hasty  consultation  in  the  opera 
house — the  book,  I  mean.  The  stage-directions  read  like 
those  of  literary  plays  never  intended  for  public  perform- 
ance. They  tell  of  things  which  could  never  be  divined  from 
the  performance  alone.  For  instance :  one  of  the  stage-folk 
opens  a  scroll  and  examines  it.  "  A  caricature  of  Haug- 
witz !  "  he  exclaims,  laughs,  and  shows  it  to  his  companions. 
Now  read  the  stage-directions :  "  Students  approach,  curi- 
ous to  see ;  all  laugh  at  the  caricature,  which  represents  the 
minister  as  a  pig  grubbing  up  mushrooms,  which  Napoleon, 
represented  as  Pluto,  seizes  and  devours.  Each  mushroom 
bears  the  name  of  a  German  state,  province,  or  city." 
Plainly,  whoever  was  responsible  for  bookmaking  of  this 
type  had  something  more  than  the  ordinary  operatic  per- 
formance in  view,  and  this  must  have  been  the  composer  of 
"  Germania."  Baron  Franchetti,  although  listed  as  an  Ital- 
ian and  born  in  Turin,  is  a  scion  of  the  house  of  Rothschild, 
whose  founder  hailed  from  the  Judengasse  in  Frankfort. 
His  higher  musical  education  was  acquired  at  the  Hoch- 
schule  in  Munich  and  at  Dresden  under  the  tutelage  of 
Draeseke,  an  arch-Wagnerite  in  the  days  when  such  men 
were  notable  for  their  rarity.  Before  he  had  made  his  name 
widely  known  he  composed  a  symphony,  like  a  good  Ger- 
man, and  it  was  as  a  symphonist  that  New  York  first  heard 
of  him  as  long  ago  as  1887.  Mr.  Theodore  Thomas  gave 
the  composition  a  hearing  at  a  concert  of  the  Philharmonic 
Society.  He  also  played  a  piece  of  between-acts  music  from 
an  opera  entitled  "  Asrael,"  by  the  same  composer,  and  thus 


FRANCHETTI'S  MUSIC  IN  NEW  YORK  151 

helped  to  create  curiosity  touching  the  personality  of  the 
author  of  the  opera  when  it  was  chosen  by  Mr.  Edmund  C. 
Stanton  to  open  the  season  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House  on  November  26,  1890.  The  occasion  was  for  sev- 
eral reasons  an  interesting  one.  For  one  thing  it  introduced 
Mr.  Andreas  Dippel  to  New  York,  then  a  young  tenor  and 
at  the  time  of  this  production  one  of  the  managers  of  the 
institution  which  lifted  him  out  of  the  obscurity  of  the 
Bremen  municipal  theater.  It  was  also  the  beginning  of  an 
amusing  and  futile  experiment  to  effect  a  compromise  be- 
tween the  German  regime  which  prevailed  at  the  opera 
house  at  the  time  and  the  desire  of  the  boxholders  to  hear 
Italian  opera  instead  of  German.  Franchetti  was  a  com- 
poser with  a  name  which  had  an  Italian  sound ;  Smareglia 
was  another;  and  from  them  New  Yorkers  received  the 
two  most  astonishing  operas  that  they  had  ever  heard — 
"  Asrael  "  and  "  Der  Vassal  von  Szigeth."  In  "  Asrael  " 
there  was  noticeable  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  composer 
to  veer  from  the  Italian  style  of  its  day  to  the  German. 
Had  Wagner  lived  to  hear  it  he  would  probably  have  ex- 
plained the  phenomenon  on  racial  grounds,  saying  that  Fran- 
chetti's  music  was  like  the  language  spoken  by  his  people, 
the  Jews,  without  national  idiom  because  it  was  an  acquired, 
not  a  native,  tongue.  There  is  more  than  a  hint  of  that 
peculiarity  in  the  music  of  "  Germania,"  which  I  am  strongly 
inclined  to  believe  was  written  with  an  eye  on  the  theaters 
of  Germany  rather  than  those  of  Italy.  It  has  for  a  back- 
ground a  series  of  incidents  calculated  to  put  German 
patriotism  in  a  ferment.  It  pictures  the  uprising  of  the 
German  people  under  the  leadership  of  their  poets,  philoso- 
phers, university  students — the  Tugendbund  and  Louisen- 
bund — against  the  Napoleonic  oppression.  The  martyrdom 
of  Palm,  the  Nuremberg  bookseller,  is  the  chief  incident  of 
the  prologue.  A  gathering  of  the  patriots  and  the  resolu- 
tion of  a  private  quarrel  into  a  patriotic  outburst  by  the 
opportune  appearance  of  Queen  Louise  and  the  young  prince 


152  AN  APPEAL  TO  GERMAN  PATRIOTISM 

who  came  down  into  our  own  day  as  William  I  of  Prussia, 
German  Emperor,  is  another.  A  symphonic  delineation  of 
the  Battle  of  Leipsic,  followed  by  a  picture  of  the  battle- 
field, with  the  Little  Corporal  and  his  guard  moving  past 
the  background  in  the  retreat  from  Germany,  is  still  another. 
These  things,  which  are  treated  as  accompaniments  to  a 
story  of  love  arid  intrigue  which,  while  commonplace  enough 
in  its  elements,  is  yet  handled  with  a  fine  command  of 
pathos  by  both  librettist  and  composer,  are  animated  by 
many  appealing  touches  of  detail  introduced  to  heighten  the 
local  color.  The  first  music  heard  is  that  of  one  of  the  most 
familiar  folksongs  of  Germany,  "  So  viel  Stern'  am  Himmel 
stehen,"  which  a  poor  old  woman  is  overheard  teaching  to 
her  nephew.  At  a  gathering  of  patriots  we  are  introduced 
to  the  counterfeit  presentments  (mostly  mute)  of  such  his- 
toric personalities  as  Palm,  Loewe,  Fichte,  Humboldt,  the 
Schlegels,  Theodor  Korner,  Liitzow,  and  Carl  Maria  von 
Weber.  When  the  last  three  appear,  in  the  company  of 
their  patriotic  brethren,  there  is  a  spontaneous  outburst  of 
the  chorus  in  the  stirring  song,  "  Liitzow's  wilde  Jagd," 
which  the  veritable  Korner  wrote  and  the  veritable  von 
Weber  composed,  and  which  was  a  sort  of  German  "  Mar- 
seillaise "  during  the  last  year  of  Bonaparte's  European 
domination.  It  was  a  pretty  impulse  which  prompted  the 
introduction  of  these  elements,  but  in  introducing  them  the 
librettist  and  composer  played  havoc  with  the  verities  of 
history.  The  period  covered  by  the  drama  is  from  the  cap- 
ture of  Palm  to  the  Battle  of  Leipsic — 1806  to  October, 
1813.  At  that  time,  though  the  melody  of  the  love  song 
"  So  viel  Stern' "  was  known,  it  had  not  been  printed  to  the 
words  which  are  used  in  translated  form  in  the  libretto,  but 
was  sung  to  words  which  would  have  served  the  libret- 
tist better  had  he  known  them,  for  they  began :  "  O,  du 
Deutschland,  ich  muss  marschiren."  There  is  no  error  in 
the  use  of  the  old  student  song  "  Gaudeamus  igitur  "  (which, 
by  the  way,  N.  P.  Willis  is  credited  with  having  introduced 


ANACHRONISMS  IN  THE  SCORE  153 

in  America),  but  there  is  a  dreadful  anachronism  in  every- 
thing in  the  opera  appertaining  to  Korner,  Weber,  and  their 
song  "  Ltitzow's  wilde  Jagd."  The  prologue  in  which  it  is 
sung  is  supposed  to  play  in  1808;  the  song  was  written  by 
Korner  on  April  24,  1813,  and  composed  by  Weber  in  the 
summer  of  1814.  "  Voices  blend  in  snatches  of  Weber's 
'  Wilde  Jagd '  already  popular,"  says  the  librettist  in  one 
of  the  glosses  which  serve  as  stage-directions.  Popular 
eight  years  before  its  creation !  If  this  was  to  be  accepted 
as  a  poetic  license  the  librettist  should  have  omitted  his 
note.  But  this  is  only  one  of  many  blunders  in  excuse  of 
which  it  may  be  said  that,  though  they  may  cause  a  smile, 
they  do  not  affect  the  effectiveness  of  the  opera. 

The  opera  is  effective.  Its  pictures  are  beautiful.  Its 
political  element  is  ingeniously  used  to  emphasize  the  pathos 
of  the  love  story.  A  soldier-student  returns  from  his  coun- 
try's service  to  his  love.  In  his  absence  her  ruin  has  been 
accomplished  by  one  of  his  friends.  He  does  not  learn  the 
fact  until  after  he  has  made  the  woman  his  wife.  Scarcely 
have  the  marriage  vows  been  exchanged  when  the  friend, 
who  was  thought  to  have  been  killed  in  battle,  staggers  into 
the  home  of  the  wedded  pair.  The  woman  had  promised 
to  hold  her  peace  because  she  wanted  no  murder.  The 
seducer  can  not  face  the  ordeal  with  which  he  has  been  con- 
fronted. In  spite  of  his  friend's  protest  he  insists  on  going 
on  his  way.  The  husband  accompanies  him  in  the  capacity 
of  guide.  The  wife,  no  longer  able  to  control  her  emotions, 
writes  a  word  of  farewell  and  rushes  off  through  darkness 
and  storm.  Her  husband  learns  the  truth  from  the  inno- 
cent prattle  of  a  child.  He  seeks  him,  of  whom  he  is  now  a 
deadly  enemy,  at  a  meeting  of  the  patriots  in  Konigsberg, 
denounces  him,  insults  him,  and  compels  the  man,  who  is 
overwhelmed  with  contrition,  to  accept  his  challenge  to  a 
battle  with  swords ;  but  even  as  the  blades  are  crossed  there 
appears  Queen  Louise  with  her  child  and  asks  that  the 
blades  be  used  in  the  service  of  Germany.  The  husband 


154        AN  OPPORTUNITY  FOR  MILITARY  OPERAS 

forgets  his  private  wrong  and  the  two  meet  death  on  the 
battlefield  of  Leipsic,  where  the  wife  finds  her  husband 
dying  and  her  seducer  dead. 

The  story  is  well  handled  by  the  librettist,  though  much 
that  is  inconsequential  has  been  introduced  into  the  book 
and  its  commentary,  the  stage-directions.  It  has  been 
treated  with  skill,  which  frequently  rises  to  admirable 
heights,  by  the  composer.  Signer  Franchetti's  style  is  em- 
pirical. He  oscillates  from  Wagner  to  his  modern  col- 
leagues, makes  attempts  at  being  German  in  style,  but  falls 
back  upon  the  early  Verdi  when  he  becomes  most  fluent. 
He  uses  Weber's  thrilling  song  with  fine  skill.  The  delinea- 
tion of  battle  in  the  symphonic  interlude  and  the  way  in 
which  the  mood  of  the  final  scene — the  epilogue — is  pre- 
served are  both  masterly. 

When  "  Germania,"  in  which  an  Italian  sought  to  glorify 
the  patriotism  of  Germany,  was  produced  in  New  York 
profound  peace  prevailed  throughout  Christendom  except 
in  the  chronically  disturbed  Central  American  republics.  If 
Mars  had  been  wading  through  blood  in  Europe  as  he  is 
while  I  write  these  words,  and  America  had  been  at  peace 
with  the  warring  peoples,  what  a  riot  and  revel  of  patriotic 
demonstration  might  we  not  have  seen  with  the  Germans 
driving  Bonaparte  out  of  their  country  on  the  stage  of  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House,  the  Carlists  and  Spanish  Re- 
publicans trouncing  each  other  on  the  stage  of  the  Manhat- 
tan, and  the  Frenchmen  putting  the  Prussians  to  flight  at 
the  New  Theater  as  they  did  a  fortnight  after  the  produc- 
tion of  Franchetti's  opera!  True,  Mme.  Calve  was  not  in 
New  York  at  this  particular  juncture,  but  "  La  Navarraise  " 
would  not  have  long  remained  on  the  shelf  with  our  breth- 
ren of  Teutonic  origin  mingling  their  voices  (in  spirit  if 
not  in  fact)  with  "  Liitzow's  wild'  verwegene  Jagd "  in 
"  Germania "  and  our  Gallic  contingent  shouting  "  Vic- 
toire !  "  in  Bruneau's  "  L'Attaque  du  Moulin,"  which  had  its 
first  American  performance  at  the  New  Theater  on  Feb- 


BRUNEAU'S  "  L'ATTAQUE  DU  MOULIN  "  155 

ruary  8,  1910.  There  was,  of  course,  no  special  significance 
in  the  production  of  two  military  operas  within  a  fortnight 
by  the  forces  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House.  There 
might  have  been  such  a  seeming  if  Mr.  Dippel  and  his  Ger- 
man cohorts  had  charged  themselves  with  the  production 
of  "  Germania  "  and  the  French  contingent  of  Signer  Gatti 
had  brought  forward  "  L'Attaque  du  Moulin  "  without  his 
help.  But  both  of  the  productions  were  under  the  care  of 
the  General  Manager,  who  occupied  a  neutral  attitude  at 
the  time  as  between  France  and  Germany.  Moreover,  no 
one  who  had  gone  even  a  small  distance  into  the  conditions 
prevailing  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  needed  to  be 
told  why  the  two  operas  chanced  to  be  produced  in  this 
season.  The  demands  of  a  firm  of  Italian  music  publishers 
read  in  effect:  If  no  novelty  from  our  press,  no  Puccini. 
Hence  "  Germania."  Mr.  Hammerstein  had  threatened  the 
prestige  of  the  house  in  upper  Broadway  by  his  successful 
production  of  French  operas.  Hence  "  L'Attaque  du  Mou- 
lin." None  of  Massenet's  operas  being  available  (Hammer- 
stein  practically  had  them  all),  search  had  to  be  made  else- 
where ;  and  the  choice  fell  on  Bruneau's  "  L'Attaque." 

On  the  whole,  it  was  not  a  bad  choice.  There  are  older 
and  better  French  composers  than  M.  Bruneau,  but  few 
who  had  been  more  talked  about  and  few  more  entitled  to 
respect.  Saint-Saens,  whom  we  know  even  now  but  slightly 
on  the  operatic  stage,  does  not  belong  to  the  school  of 
younger  men  who  write  criticisms  as  well  as  music  in  France 
and  are  so  deft  at  passing  the  candied  stick  of  mutual  com- 
pliment from  mouth  to  mouth  that  they  make  for  each  other 
pages  of  history.  So  nothing  of  his  was  to  be  expected. 
There  was  talk  of  the  things  by  Debussy  which  have  figured 
in  the  Metropolitan  prospectuses  for  years,  but  preliminary 
talk  is  always  in  inverse  ratio  to  performance  at  our  opera 
houses.  Therefore  Bruneau  was  reasonably  natural.  Ber- 
lioz was  left  out  of  consideration,  of  course  (he  is  still  left 
out!),  for  the  world  seems  to  share  France's  fear  of  the 


156  THE  COMPOSER  AND  WAGNER 

most  gifted  composer  that  she  has  produced  since  the  Ro- 
mantic period  set  in.  Yet  it  would  have  been  interesting 
then  (it  would  be  interesting  now)  to  witness  an  experi- 
ment with  "  Benvenuto  Cellini  "  or  "  Les  Troyens  a  Car- 
thage." But  all  this  is  idle  retrospection  and  speculation. 
"  L'Attaque  du  Moulin  "  was  added  to  our  repertory,  and 
the  fact  ought  to  cause  no  regret.  No  time  more  propitious 
for  its  revival  than  the  present  could  be  conceived.  It  is 
worth  a  revival.  The  opera  has  a  most  moving  and  pa- 
thetic story  at  its  base.  Zola  conceived  it,  which  means 
much  in  favor  of  its  dramatic  strength.  Louis  Gallet  threw 
it  into  dramatic  verse  and  Alfred  Bruneau  gave  it  musical 
investiture.  It  is,  perhaps,  unfortunate  for  our  knowledge 
of  French  music  that  Bruneau's  works  are  so  little  per- 
formed. Like  many  another  young  Frenchman,  he  started 
out  with  fine  achievements  (of  which  "  L'Attaque  du  Mou- 
lin "  is  one)  and  finer  protestations.  At  the  beginning  of 
his  career  he  fell  under  the  spell  of  Wagner,  but  soon 
realized  that  the  Wagnerian  method,  as  understood  by  his 
compatriots,  was  not  wholly  compatible  with  French  artis- 
tic principles.  He  did  not  turn  on  his  model  and  try  to 
rend  him,  like  Debussy,  but  made  an  effort  to  unite  the  new 
German  style  of  dramatic  expression  with  the  old  French 
conceptions  of  elegance  and  clarity.  He  himself  said  "  con- 
ciseness "  also,  but  after  hearing  this  opera  it  is  not  possible 
to  say  that  he  successfully  pursued  this  ideal.  He  wanted, 
he  said,  to  follow  the  great  German  in  his  symphonic  treat- 
ment of  themes ;  but  he  did  not  believe  it  necessary  to  shuffle 
off  all  the  old  formulas ;  and  so  he  gave  the  world  an  opera 
in  which  there  is  some  orchestral  play  with  typical  phrases, 
which  are  typical  only  from  the  most  arbitrary  point  of 
view  (except  the  military  signals  borrowed  from  the  French 
and  the  German  military  codes),  and  as  much  of  the 
familiar  sentimental  melody  style  as  Gounod  or  his  master 
Massenet  ever  indulged.  Nothing  in  the  dramatic  situations 
of  the  opera — which  has  a  story  calculated  to  keep  nerves 


A  STORY  BORROWED  FROM  ZOLA       157 

and  emotion  on  a  tension  and  the  mind  on  a  qui  vive  from 
beginning  to  end — is  permitted  to  interfere  with  the  com- 
poser's desire  to  write  a  set  piece  of  music  whenever  he 
feels  like  it.  Even  a  sentinel  on  guard  over  a  man  con- 
demned to  death  sings  yards  of  tune  about  home,  mother, 
and  sweetheart  with  the  nonchalance  of  the  Tommy  Atkins 
who  steps  out  of  the  sentry-box  in  Gilbert  &  Sullivan's 
operetta ;  though  this  one  gets  a  slit  in  his  windpipe  for  his 
pains,  which  he  never  would  have  invited  had  he  behaved 
like  a  real  soldier  instead  of  an  operatic  marionette. 

What  is  most  admirable  in  Bruneau's  opera  is  the  effec- 
tiveness of  its  musical  declamation.  This  is  in  the  best  sense 
French,  and  the  composer  did  not  need  to  explain  it,  as  he 
did  some  years  ago  in  London,  by  telling  how  he  had  hit 
upon  the  device  by  speaking  his  text  loudly  and  noting  the 
natural  inflections  of  his  voice  prompted  by  his  emotions. 
Such  inflections  were  the  beginning  of  all  emotionalized 
speech,  and  one  of  the  inventors  of  the  operatic  form,  Cac- 
cini,  told  his  generation  how  he  had  studied  and  utilized 
them  more  than  three  centuries  ago.  The  opera,  as  has 
been  said,  has  a  fine  story,  which  was  well  put  together  by 
the  librettist  but  is  made  too  diffuse  for  good  dramatic 
effect  by  the  composer's  willingness  to  be  a  sentimental 
musician.  The  plot  deals  with  a  short  tale  by  Zola,  a  fan- 
tasy based  on  the  Franco-Prussian  War  of  1870.  Flamand, 
who  is  betrothed  to  the  daughter  of  a  French  mill-owner, 
helps  to  defend  the  mill  against  an  attack  of  the  Prussians. 
He  is  a  non-combatant  and  therefore  is  sentenced  to  death 
by  the  Prussian  captain ;  but  is  offered  a  chance  to  save  his 
life  in  return  for  a  service  to  the  enemy.  He  refuses.  His 
fiancee  suggests  his  escape  by  the  murder  of  the  sentinel 
who  was  set  to  guard  him,  and  puts  the  murderous  knife 
into  his  hands.  He  uses  it  successfully,  but  meanwhile  his 
prospective  father-in-law,  the  mill-owner,  is  made  a  victim 
in  his  stead.  He  is  a  willing  victim,  having  the  happiness 
of  his  daughter  and  her  lover  in  mind,  and  to  save  them  he 


158  RUSSIAN  OPERAS  IN  AMERICA 

is  guilty  of  falsehood.  At  the  last  the  young  man  returns 
at  the  head  of  some  French  soldiers  and  drives  the  Prus- 
sians away  from  the  mill,  but  they  carry  the  miller  with 
them,  and  a  shot  tells  of  the  voluntary  sacrifice  of  his  life 
for  the  sake  of  his  loved  ones.  All  the  characters,  down  to 
the  least  significant,  are  drawn  with  strongly  individual  lines, 
and  the  largest  of  them,  the  miller,  the  lover,  the  captain  of 
the  Prussian  soldiers — who  are  spoken  of  euphemistically 
as  "  the  enemy  "  for  diplomatic  reasons,  as  was  explained  at 
the  original  production  of  the  opera  in  1893,  when  the  time 
of  the  action  was  set  back  to  1792 — the  miller's  housekeeper, 
Marcelline,  and  Franchise,  the  miller's  daughter,  were  effec- 
tively impersonated  at  the  performance  in  the  cast  of  which 
there  were  two  artists  who  took  part  when  the  opera  was 
originally  performed — Mme.  Delna  and  M.  Clement.  The 
former  filled  her  original  part,  but  the  latter  was  the  hero- 
lover  in  New  York,  whereas  he  had  been  the  sentinel  in 
Paris.  The  cast  was  as  follows : 

Dominique   Edmond  Clement 

Merlier   Dinh   Gilly 

Le  Capitaine  ennemi Andrea  Segurola 

La  Sentinelle  Georges  Regis 

Le  Tambour   Paul   Annanian 

Franchise    Jane   Noria 

Marcelline    Marie  Delna 

Genevieve   Christine  Helaine 

Le  Capitaine  f rangais  Leo  Devaux 

Le  Sergeant   Bernard   Begue 

A  report,  which  in  my  mind  is  as  vague  as  a  mere  tradi- 
tion, has  it  that  many  years  ago,  fifty  at  least,  a  troupe  of 
Russian  singers  visiting  the  United  States  gave  perform- 
ances of  Verstowsky's  opera  "  Askold's  Tomb."  I  recall 
finding  the  libretto  in  a  library,  and  the  fact  impressed  itself 
upon  my  mind  that  it  bore  an  American  imprint.  So  far  as 
my  knowledge  goes,  however,  until  Tschaikowsky's  "  Pique 
Dame  "  was  produced  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  on 
March  5,  1910,  no  distinctively  Russia  opera  had  been  heard 


A  FAITHFUL  NATIONAL  SCHOOL  159 

in  New  York.  True,  the  National  Opera  Company  gave 
Rubinstein's  "  Nero  "  some  thirty-odd  years  ago  at  the  Met- 
ropolitan, but  not  even  the  composer  would  have  dared  to 
assert  that  "  Nero  "  was  in  any  sense  a  national  opera. 
Rubinstein  was  not  identified  with  the  Russian  school  of 
composition  which  has  so  profoundly  stirred  the  musical 
pool  in  recent  years,  and,  indeed,  was  only  slightly  tinctured 
with  Slavism  musically.  In  this  he  was,  unfortunately  for 
him  I  think,  a  man  without  a  country.  He  himself  made 
confession  to  that  fact  when  he  humorously  but  yet  pathet- 
ically set  down  the  fact  that  he  seemed  to  be  neither  fish, 
flesh  nor  fowl,  inasmuch  as  the  Russians  said  he  was  a 
German,  the  Germans  that  he  was  a  Russian,  the  Jews  that 
he  was  a  Christian,  the  Christians  that  he  was  a  Jew,  the 
Classicists  that  he  was  a  Romanticist,  the  Romanticists  that 
he  was  a  Classicist.  In  this  he  reminds  me  of  Dudley 
Buck's  description  of  himself  in  Biblical  terms  as  "  Issachar, 
a  strong  ass  crouching  down  between  two  burdens,"  after  I 
had  deplored  his  lack  of  dramatic  talent  in  a  piece  ostensibly 
dramatic  and  a  Boston  critic  had  spoken  of  the  dramatic 
quality  of  his  church  music.  "  Nero  "  has  a  Roman  subject, 
was  composed  to  German  words  and  without  a  tinge  of 
either  Latinism  or  Slavism.  Now,  no  composers  have 
been  more  faithful  to  their  literary  and  musical  idioms  than 
the  Russians  since  they  have  risen  to  the  dignity  of  a  school. 
Glinka  was  but  slightly  idiomatic  in  his  operas,  but  he  went 
to  Pouschkin  for  the  subject  of  "  Rousslan  and  Ludmilla," 
and  the  same  author  furnished  forth  the  material  for  Dar- 
gomischki's  "  Russalka  "  and  Moussorgsky's  "  Boris  Godou- 
now,"  which  provided  one  of  the  points  of  high  light  in  the 
Metropolitan  season  of  1912-13.  Lermontow  and  Gogol 
are  other  names  which  come  to  mind  as  men  whose  writings 
have  found  their  way  into  operas.  In  view  of  the  fact  that 
no  composer  of  our  day  has  enjoyed  a  popularity  like  that 
of  Tschaikowsky,  it  was  a  little  strange  that  we  had  to  wait 
so  long  before  hearing  one  of  his  operas.  "  Pique  Dame  " 


160  TSCHAIKOWSKY'S  "  PIQUE  DAME  " 

had  been  promised  in  the  season  before  in  an  Italian  version 
under  the  title  "  La  Dama  di  Picchi  " ;  it  was  heard  on  this 
occasion  in  German,  and,  if  the  circumstances  had  urgently 
demanded,  might  have  been  sung  for  the  greater  part  in 
Russian,  since  there  were  so  many 'Slavs  concerned  in  its 
performance — Anna  Meitschik,  Leo  Slezak,  Adamo  Didur, 
and  Adolph  Miihlmann — all  the  principal  characters  but  one. 
There  was  also  Gustav  Mahler,  specially  brought  back  to 
the  opera  house  to  conduct  the  work.  The  cast  was  as 
follows : 

Hermann  Leo  Slezak 

Count  Tomsky  Adamo  Didur 

Prince  Jaletzky    John  Forsell 

Czekalinsky  Wilhelm  Otto 

Tsurin  Adolph  Miihlmann 

Tschaplitzky  Glenn  Hall 

Narumoff    Anton   Ludwig 

The  Countess Anna  Meitschik 

Liza  Emmy  Destinn 

Pauline Florence  Wickham 

The  Governess Marie  Mattf eld 

Mascha    Leonora   Sparkes 

Chloe  (in  the  interlude)    Alma  Gluck 

Let  it  be  said  at  once  that  the  occasion  was  one  of  extraor- 
dinary interest,  one  that  made  the  "  Villis  "  and  "  Wallys  " 
of  the  Italian  list  sink  into  insignificance.  Pouschkin's  story 
is  much  more  sententious  than  that  of  the  opera-book.  The 
composer's  brother  in  adapting  it  was  obliged  to  expand  it, 
not  only  for  the  sake  of  the  stage-spectacle  which  St.  Peters- 
burg and  Moscow  demand,  but  also  to  create  sympathy  for 
its  principal  characters.  In  the  original  story  a  young  lieu- 
tenant, obsessed  by  the  gaming  mania,  frightens  an  old 
woman  to  death  in  an  effort  to  extract  from  her  the  secret 
of  her  success  at  cards — a  success  which  has  given  her  the 
sobriquet  of  "  The  Queen  of  Spades."  He  gets  it  from  her 
ghost,  plays  the  three  cards  enjoined,  wins  on  two,  ventures 
his  all  on  the  third,  but  at  the  moment  which  should  be  his 
final  triumph  the  ace  of  hearts  in  his  hands  changes  into  the 


THE  COMPOSER'S  CONFESSIONS  161 

Queen  of  Spades,  the  specter  of  the  woman  whose  death  he 
had  accomplished  confronts  him,  and  with  his  last  penny 
there  goes  with  him  also  his  last  glimmer  of  reason.  He  is 
sent  to  a  madhouse,  but  the  young  woman  in  the  story  re- 
mains as  decorous  in  her  behavior  as  Goethe's  Charlotte 
and  marries  a  man  of  her  choice.  Modest  Tschaikowsky 
added  characters  and  situations  to  this  story,  created  a  be- 
trothal between  the  heroine  and  a  royal  personage  whom 
she  did  not  love,  made  the  motive  of  the  hero's  mania  a 
desire  to  obtain  money  enough  to  enable  him  to  marry,  and 
sent  the  heroine  to  self-destruction  because  love  of  money 
had  supplanted  love  of  her  in  his  insane  mind.  So,  too,  he 
sends  the  lover  to  self-inflicted  death  and  gives  the  specta- 
tors a  moment,  but  only  a  moment,  of  commiserating  sym- 
pathy for  the  ill-starred  pair.  Unfortunately,  this  part  of 
the  story  is  imperfectly  brought  out,  too  much  time  is  occu- 
pied with  inconsequentials,  and  the  ultimate  impression  left 
upon  the  mind  is  scarcely  one  of  interest  in  the  fate  of  the 
hero,  to  say  nothing  of  the  sympathy  which  the  composer 
labored  hard  to  create. 

Tschaikowsky  was  given  to  laying  bare  his  heart  to  his 
friends,  and  he  has  told  how  he  wept  when  he  composed  the 
last  pages.  Then,  curiously  analyzing  his  feelings,  he  dis- 
covered that  he  had  come  to  associate  the  character  of  Her- 
mann with  a  friend  who  was  destined  to  sing  the  part  when 
his  work  was  brought  out  at  the  Imperial  Opera  at  St. 
Petersburg  in  1890.  "  Pique  Dame  "  brought  curiously  to 
mind  the  eclectic  character  of  the  music  of  the  Russian 
school.  The  individual  note  in  it  is  undeniable.  It  is  amaz- 
ing that  so  modern  a  composer  as  Tschaikowsky  could  find 
such  varied  and  eloquent  dramatic  accents  without  once 
poaching  on  Wagner's  preserves.  He  makes  the  frankest 
kind  of  excursions  into  Mozartian  fields  in  the  intermezzo 
which  interrupts  the  action  of  the  second  act  yet  provides 
delightful  recreation  and  refreshment.  There  were  many 
enigmatic  things  about  Tschaikowsky.  Many  of  his  self- 


162  TSCHAIKOWSKY  AND  MOZART 

accusations  are  not  to  be  taken  seriously,  and  no  doubt  much 
of  his  life  was  hidden  even  from  his  intimate  friends.  In 
one  of  his  letters  written  from  Florence,  where  he  composed 
"  Pique  Dame,"  he  said  that  he  had  stolen  the  beginning  of 
its  music  from  Naprawnik;  yet  that  composer  was  unable 
to  find  out  what  and  where  the  alleged  pilferings  were. 
Tschaikowsky  never  seems  to  have  mentioned  that  the  pas- 
toral interlude  is  almost  pure  Mozart.  No  doubt  he  thought 
it  unnecessary.  It  was  too  obvious  to  call  for  deprecatory 
comment,  and  for  it  there  was  sufficient  confession  in  his 
well-known  love  for  the  composer.  To  Mozart  he  paid 
tribute  in  the  Serenade  for  Strings,  the  Suite  "  Mozartiana," 
and  in  one  of  the  letters  to  his  patroness,  Mme.  von  Meek. 
This  letter  is  all  eulogy.  "  Why  do  you  not  like  Mozart  ?  " 
he  asks  his  friend ;  "  I  not  only  like  him,  I  idolize  him. 
For  me  the  most  beautiful  opera  ever  composed  is  '  Don 
Juan.'  "  Two  years  later,  writing  about  Glinka  to  the  same 
lady,  he  contrasts  the  latter's  character  with  that  of  Mozart 
very  much  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  former.  In  Septem- 
ber, 1880,  he  tells  his  friend  that,  seeking  recreation  from 
his  own  music-making,  he  has  taken  up  the  study  of  Mo- 
zart's "  Magic  Flute."  "  Never  before,"  says  he,  "  has  so 
nonsensical  and  stupid  a  text  been  set  to  such  glorious  music. 
How  grateful  I  am  to  Fate  that  Mozart's  music  has  not  lost 
for  me  a  single  hair's-breadth  of  its  natural,  unaffected  fas- 
cination. You  have  no  idea,  my  dear  friend,  what  strange 
emotions  pour  through  me  when  I  sink  myself  in  it.  It  is 
something  wholly  different  from  the  passionate  ecstasy 
which  a  Beethoven,  Schumann,  or  Chopin  awaken  in  me." 

There  are  other  archaic  touches  which  come  with  a  pleas- 
urable shock  to  the  knowing  in  this  music.  Thus,  after 
Pauline  has  sung  a  beautiful  romance  in  the  second  act  for 
the  delectation  of  her  friends,  she  deplores  its  melancholy 
mood  and  proposes  a  song  from  the  steppes,  in  which  they 
join.  It  is  "  Maschenka,"  a  folksong,  which  is  reproduced 
with  a  fine  preservation  of  its  native  manner  and  spirit. 


QUOTATIONS  APTLY  USED  163 

Again,  when  the  old  Countess,  returning  from  the  ball,  rails 
at  the  decadence  of  social  manners  since  the  days  of  her 
youth,  when  counts  and  dukes  were  at  her  feet  in  Paris,  she 
recalls  that  once,  in  the  palace  of  the  Prince  de  Conde,  she 
sang  a  romance  for  the  King  of  France ;  and  she  sings  it, 
repeating  it  again  in  a  murmur  as  she  falls  asleep.  It  is  the 
air  from  Gretry's  "  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion  "  beginning  "  Je 
crains  de  lui  parler  la  nuit."  But  all  these  ingenious  and 
gracious  devices  are  of  small  account  compared  with  the 
dramatic  music  in  the  voice  of  Tschaikowsky  when  the  issue 
has  been  joined  and  he  tells  of  the  emotions  of  Hermann 
and  the  luckless  Lisa.  Not  only  in  his  orchestration,  which 
is  admirable  throughout,  but  in  his  themes  and  their  devel- 
opment he  discloses  a  genius  for  dramatic  expression  which 
is  remarkable  and  for  which  not  even  his  symphonies  and 
symphonic  poems  had  prepared  us.  The  opera  was  splen- 
didly sung  and  beautifully  staged  under  the  direction  of 
Herr  Mahler,  who  had  brought  it  forward  at  the  Court 
Opera  in  Vienna  in  December,  1902,  when  Mr.  Slezak  also 
took  part  in  the  performance. 


CHAPTER  VII 

POPULAR  OPERA  AT  THE  CENTURY 
THEATER 

PRODUCTION  OF  AN  ENGLISH  OPERA-"  THE  PIPE  OF  DESIRE  "— 
A  VERSATILE  PREDECESSOR  OF  THIS  AUTHOR— IMPORTANCE 
OF  OPERATIC  TEXTS— A  FANTASTIC  OPERA- JUMBLING  OF 
MYTHOLOGICAL  AND  FOLKLORE  ELEMENTS— ENGLISH 
OPERA  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN— A  PRIZE  COMPETITION— 
"MONA"— EARLY  HISTORY  OF  "  NATOMA  "—AGITATION 
FOLLOWING  THE  CONTEST— ACTION  BY  THE  CITY  CLUB- 
PLANS  FOR  POPULAR  OPERA  AT  THE  CENTURY  THEATER— A 
DISASTROUS  EXPERIMENT— A  STUDY  OF  FINANCIAL  RESULTS 
—THE  SYSTEMS  OF  THE  METROPOLITAN  AND  CENTURY  COM- 
PANIES COMPARED— OPERATIC  TRANSLATIONS— THE  TRAIN- 
ING NEEDED  BY  SINGERS  AND  COMPOSERS— NATIONAL 
SCHOOLS  OF  MUSIC— MUSICAL  IDIOMS— NEED  OF  A  FORWARD 
MAN  AS  AN  EXEMPLAR— EARLY  AMERICAN  OPERAS 

ANOTHER  promise  made  in  the  previous  year,  but  left 
unfulfilled,  was  made  good  in  the  dying  hours  of  the  season 
1909-10  by  the  production  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House 
on  March  18  (it  was  afterwards  played  also  at  the  New 
Theater)  of  Frederick  S.  Converse's  opera,  "  The  Pipe  of 
Desire."  It  was  given  with  the  following  cast,  which  was 
changed  at  the  New  Theater  by  the  substitution  of  Mme. 
Mariska  Aldrich  for  Mme.  Homer: 

lolan Riccardo  Martin 

Naoia  Louise  Homer 

The  Old  One Clarence  Whitehill 

First  Sylph   Leonora  Sparkes 

First  Undine  Lillia  Snelling 

First  Salamander  Glenn  Hall 

First  Gnome  Herbert  Witherspoon 

The  words  of  this  opera,  or  "  operatic  fantasy  "  as  it  was 
called,  are  English,  and  the  composer  is  an  American  of  old 
New  England  stock.  Moreover,  all  the  singers  in  the  cast 

164 


PRODUCTION  OF  AN  AMERICAN  OPERA  165 

were  native  Americans.  Much  was  made  of  these  facts  in 
the  announcements,  but  their  significance  lies  in  the  appli- 
cation of  them.  Once  the  New  York  Tribune,  in  whose 
chair  of  musical  criticism  I  have  sat  for  nearly  forty  years, 
had  a  musical  reviewer  who  composed  two  operas.  He 
wrote  also  the  words,  which  were  English,  and  the  operas, 
or  one  of  them  at  least,  had  performances  in  New  York  and 
Philadelphia.  By  precept  and  example,  Mr.  W.  H.  Fry,  the 
critic  in  question,  championed  the  cause  of  opera  in  the 
vernacular  with  a  great  deal  of  zeal.  His  arguments  were 
sound  sixty  years  ago  and  are  sound  today,  but  neither  his 
arguments  nor  his  operas  affected  the  status  of  opera  in  the 
United  States — a  fact  which  hurts  my  professional  pride 
somewhat.  Much  later,  when  German  opera  supplanted 
for  a  space  the  Italian  form  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House,  writing  for  the  newspaper  which  had  enjoyed  the 
rather  unique  distinction  of  having  on  its  staff  an  editor 
who  was  as  good  a  composer  as  he  was  a  critic  and  as  good 
a  political  writer  as  he  was  a  composer,  I  hailed  the  fact 
with  gladness  because  I  thought  and  said  that  it  was  a  step 
toward  the  nationalization  of  opera,  a  consummation  de- 
voutly to  be  wished,  but  impossible  of  realization  so  long  as 
the  Italian  system  was  dominant.  A  memory  of  the  ill- 
tempered  criticism  which  my  attitude  called  forth  thirty 
years  ago  came  to  mind  on  the  evening  when  Mr.  Converse's 
opera  was  brought  forward  and  I  observed  that  every  one 
of  the  artists  concenied  in  it  was  associated  with  the  Ger- 
man representations  at  the  Metropolitan  except  Mr.  Martin, 
a  Kentuckian.  But  there  were  features  of  the  performance 
which  were  calculated  to  give  pause  to  the  enthusiasm  of 
those  in  the  audience  who  were  thoughtful  as  well  as  patri- 
otic. Of  what  good  is  the  use  of  the  vernacular  in  an  opera 
if  the  words  which  are  sung  can  not  be  understood?  What 
is  the  use  of  an  English  text  if  it  is  even  less  intelligible  to 
the  hearer  than  German,  French,  or  Italian?  If  nationali- 
zation was  in  any  degree  the  aim  of  this  production,  that 


166  LANGUAGE  AND  COMPOSITION 

aim  was  completely  destroyed  in  the  performance.  It  is  an 
old  story  that  there  are  two  ways  of  looking  at  an  operatic 
libretto.  That  which  used  to  prevail  in  France  (and  still 
prevails),  and  which  was  given  to  Germany  by  Richard 
Wagner,  is  that  the  text  is  largely  the  determining  factor 
in  the  work  and  that  the  province  of  music  is  to  give  the 
words  a  greater  beauty  and  a  heightened  potency.  That  is 
the  lesson  which  Lully  and  Gluck  taught  the  French  and 
which  their  successors  made  the  foundation  of  the  French 
school.  It  is  also  the  lesson  which  Wagner  taught  his  people 
when  he  achieved  the  regeneration  of  the  lyric  drama,  not 
only  in  Germany  but  throughout  the  world.  But  these  men, 
while  they  gave  practical  instruction  to  their  singers,  made 
their  great  reforms  possible  by  studying  the  genius  of  the 
language  which  they  used  and  making  expressive  use  of  its 
idioms.  They  did  not  leave  the  matter  of  verbal  utterance 
wholly  to  the  singer ;  they  made  it  a  part  of  their  system  of 
musical  declamation.  Every  would-be  representative  of  na- 
tionalism in  art  ought  to- follow  their  example,  provided  he 
accepts  the  theory  that  the  lyric  drama  is  a  rational  form  of 
art.  There  is  another  point  of  view — and  it  had  able  cham- 
pions in  the  past — which  reduces  the  question  of  language 
to  a  matter  of  indifference.  Mme.  de  Stael  condemned  the 
German  composers  because  in  their  music  they  followed  too 
closely  the  sense  of  the  words,  and  lauded  the  Italians  be- 
cause they  made  the  "  air  and  the  words  conform  to  each 
other  only  in  a  general  way."  This  notion  of  the  relation- 
ship between  the  words  and  music  of  an  opera  is  the  general 
one  even  today — there  is  no  use  denying  that  fact — and  so 
long  as  it  remains  so  it  will  be  a  difficult  task  for  anybody 
to  demonstrate  that  we  ought  to  hear  German,  French,  and 
Italian  operas  in  English  translations.  Many  of  the  old 
pieces  would  sound  absurd  in  English  because  they  were 
written  without  consideration  for  the  dramatic  proprieties ; 
they  retain  their  charm  because  of  their  music,  which  the 
audience  recognizes  as  conforming  to  the  drama  "  in  a  gen- 


THE  PLOT  OF  "THE  PIPE  OF  DESIRE"  167 

eral  way."  In  the  case  of  the  performance  which  I  am  con- 
sidering, except  for  a  few  short  phrases  distributed  among 
all  the  performers  and  the  lines  which  Mr.  Whitehill  sang, 
nobody  understood  what  was  being  uttered. 

Was  it  the  fault  of  the  composer?  In  a  small  degree,  yes. 
Of  the  singers?  In  a  large  degree,  yes.  But  chiefly  it  was 
the  fault  of  the  librettist.  Mr.  George  Edward  Barton's 
book  is  an  extremely  amateurish  performance.  If  it  has 
any  value  it  is  purely  literary.  It  is  a  fairy-fantasy  woe- 
fully weighted  with  what  the  author  no  doubt  thought  was 
profound  symbolism.  But  in  its  execution  there  is  a  most 
amusing  jumble  of  operatic  shreds  and  patches.  The  story 
runs  something  like  this:  The  king  of  the  fairy-folk  (elves, 
gnomes,  sylphs,  and  salamanders)  has  a  musical  instrument, 
the  pipe,  the  sound  of  which  provokes  unrest  among  all  who 
hear  it.  He  plays  upon  it  at  the  request  of  his  subjects,  and 
they  find  in  the  music  only  inspiration  to  a  merry  dance.  A 
mortal  wrests  it  from  him,  and  though  "  it  is  forbidden,"  he 
plays  upon  it.  Its  voice  summons  his  love  from  a  sick-bed 
and  makes  her  struggle  over  rocks  and  through  streams  to 
reach  his  side.  She  is  stricken  with  a  fever,  her  mind  is 
turned  awry,  and  she  dies  in  his  arms.  Had  he  put  restraint 
upon  his  impatient  desire  for  a  day  he  would  have  enjoyed  a 
full  measure  of  marital  happiness.  Then  he  curses  God  and 
lives  out  his  span  of  life  in  a  few  moments  and  dies  by  the 
side  of  her  who  was  to  have  been  his  wife.  The  king  of 
the  fairy-folk  proclaims  the  moral  of  the  piece,  which  is  that 
disobedience  to  divine  law  is  always  punished. 

This  is  the  poetical  conceit  proclaimed  in  words  which  are 
anything  but  poetical  and  which  have  about  as  much  dra- 
matic potentiality  as  a  proposition  in  Euclid.  On  the  stage, 
however,  there  flit  about  shadows  of  familiar  operatic  per- 
sonages and  elements.  The  "  Old  One,"  as  the  king  is 
called,  is  a  mixture  of  Wagner's  Wotan  and  Ambroise 
Thomas's  Harper;  the  first  salamander  is  an  absurd  cari- 
cature of  Loge,  the  first  gnome  of  Mime ;  Naoia,  the  mortal 


168  A  LIST  OF  BORROWED  ELEMENTS 

woman,  goes  mad  like  Lucia  and  Marguerite  and  dies 
stricken  like  Mireille.  The  pipe  is  Oberon's  horn,  Tamino's 
flute,  and  Papageno's  bells,  though  it  fails  to  discourse  music 
of  the  kind  that  its  nature  and  magic  power  would  seem  to 
invite.  The  elves  dance  about  lolan,  the  shepherd,  like  the 
Flower  Maidens  around  Parsifal.  The  gnomes  and  sala- 
manders burst  through  the  ranks  of  the  dancers  like  the 
satyrs  in  the  Bacchanalian  scene  in  "  Tannhauser."  But  the 
imitations  are  all  absurdly  infantile  and  only  evoke  a  pity- 
ing smile  because  of  their  futility  and  incongruity. 

Mr.  Converse  has  given  a  musical  setting  to  this  singular 
phantasmagoria  in  the  Wagnerian  manner.  Once  on  the 
entrance  of  Naoia,  near  the  close  of  the  opera,  he  drops  into 
something  which  might  be  described  as  real  song,  but  the 
rest  of  the  opera  is  formless  declamation  more  or  less  mel- 
odic, over  a  stream  of  instrumental  music  which  flows  on 
with  moments  of  placid  beauty  at  times  and  foams  in  pas- 
sionate surges  in  the  climaxes.  There  is  the  usual  applica- 
tion of  the  device  of  typical  phrases  which  we  were  told 
were  symbols  of  the  magical  pipe,  law,  the  shepherd,  fate, 
and  so  on.  The  themes  are  deftly  woven  into  a  fabric  which 
is  frequently  of  exquisite  sheen  and  iridescent  beauty,  but 
it  is  difficult  to  associate  them,  except  in  an  arbitrary  way, 
with  the  dramatic  elements  and  agencies  for  which  they  are 
supposed  to  stand.  They  have  none  of  the  onomatopoetic 
character  or  the  delineative  force  of  Wagner's  motivi.  The 
romantic  nature  of  the  subject  and  the  scene  of  merry- 
making which  the  painter,  costumer,  stage-manager,  and 
ballet-master  made  one  of  real  beauty  and  charm  would 
seem  to  call  for  a  deal  of  melody,  but  as  Gretry  cried  out 
"  Six  francs  for  an  E-string !  "  after  listening  to  an  opera 
by  Mehul  in  which  the  violins  were  replaced  by  violas,  so 
one  might  have  been  tempted  after  an  hour  of  Mr.  Con- 
verse's opera  to  offer  dollars  for  a  frank,  old-fashioned, 
unaffected  tune.  It  is  predominantly  music  which  betrays 
the  processes  of  reflection,  but  much  of  it  is  beautiful  and 


ENGLISH  OPERA  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN          169 

Mr.  Converse's  subtle  mastery  of  harmonic  and  instrumen- 
tal devices  is  most  admirable. 

I  have  been  precipitated  by  the  consideration  of  Mr.  Con- 
verse's opera  and  some  of  the  circumstances  attending  its 
production  into  a  chapter  of  history  and  discussion  relating 
to  a  subject  which  must  occupy  my  attention  frequently  and 
seriously  during  the  remainder  of  this  critical  chronicle. 
The  history  will  stand  by  itself  as  complete  as  I  think  neces- 
sary to  my  purpose  and  as  accurate  as  I  can  make  it.  The 
question  now  confronting  me  is  that  of  national  opera  in 
its  two  phases  of  original  composition  and  the  performance 
of  foreign  works  in  translated  form.  It  was  but  a  natural 
consequence  of  the  polyglot  policy  established  by  Mr.  Grau 
that  the  minds  of  the  directors  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
Company  should  be  directed  towards  the  obvious  propriety 
of  extending  the  same  hospitality  to  English  opera  that 
had  been  accorded  to  Italian,  German,  and  French — to 
English  opera,  not  necessarily  to  English  translations,  for 
that  would  be  to  violate  the  principle  upon  which  the  boasted 
policy  of  the  establishment  rested.  As  early  as  February, 
1908,  Mr.  Otto  H.  Kahn,  chairman  of  the  executive  com- 
mittee, telling  of  things  which  were  to  follow  the  reorgani- 
zation of  the  company,  said :  "  It  has  been  the  idea  of  a 
number  of  the  directors  for  a  long  time  now  that  the  Met- 
ropolitan Opera  House  would  be  more  truly  a  national  in- 
stitution if  English  opera  were  given  there.  Mr.  Dippel, 
Mr.  Mahler,  and  I  have  discussed  this  recently,  and  we 
believe  that  such  a  course  would  be  an  improvement.  One 
of  the  results  would  be  the  encouragement  of  native  sing- 
ers." On  November  29  of  the  same  year  Signer  Gatti  pro- 
posed to  the  directors  that  a  prize  be  offered  by  the  com- 
pany for  an  opera  in  English.  Action  was  at  once  taken  on 
the  proposition,  which,  the  General  Manager  said,  had  been 
prompted  by  a  number  of  commendatory  letters  which  had 
followed  the  announcement  of  his  purpose  to  produce  "  The 
Pipe  of  Desire."  Publicity  of  the  action  of  the  company  at 


i;o  A  MUNIFICENT  PRIZE  OFFERING 

once  brought  out  from  Mr.  Hammerstein  the  statement  that 
six  weeks  before  he  had  signed  a  contract  with  Mr.  Victor 
Herbert  for  an  English  opera  to  be  produced  at  the  Man- 
hattan Opera  House.     As  a  matter  of  fact  the  purpose  of 
Mr.  Hammerstein  to  bring  forward  such  an  opera  had  been 
proclaimed  by  him  in  his  prospectus  for  1907-08,  but  not 
fulfilled.    "  Natoma,"  the  opera  in  question,  was  offered  to 
Mr.  Gatti  after  the  purchase  of  Mr.  Hammerstein's  inter- 
ests, and  one  act  of  it  had  a  trial  on  the  stage  with  orchestra 
at  the  Metropolitan,  but  Mr.  Gatti  rejected  it.     It  finally 
reached   the  Metropolitan's  boards   through  the   Philadel- 
phia-Chicago Company  under  Mr.  Dippel's  management.    I 
mention  these   facts  here  as   forming  an  incident  of  the 
rivalry  between  the  opera  houses,  not  as  a  reflection  on  the 
judgment  of  Mr.  Gatti,  which  I  think  was  sound  and  in  no 
wise  impeached  by  the  subsequent  performance  of  the  work. 
Formal    announcement   of    the   Metropolitan    contest   was 
made  on  December  15,  1908.    The  prize  was  to  be  $10,000. 
The  conditions  in  brief  were  these:   The  composer  must  be 
a  native  citizen  of  the  United  States,  though  the  place  of  his 
residence  was  immaterial ;   the  opera  must  be  original  and 
never  have  been  performed  or  published  in  whole  or  part 
prior  to  the  making  of  the  award ;  it  must  be  what  is  com- 
monly known  as  "  grand  opera  "  and  not  require  more  than 
three  and  one-quarter  hours  in  performance;    the  libretto 
must  be  in  English  and  might  be  based  upon  any  drama, 
novel,  or  other  literary  composition,  but,  if  so,  must  be  a 
new  adaptation;   the  contest  was  to  close  on  September  15, 
IQIO,  after  which  date  no  manuscripts  were  to  be  received ; 
if  book  and  score  were  productions  of  different  persons, 
both  names  were  to  be  submitted  with  means  for  identify- 
ing the  respective  labor  of  the  authors  and  an  agreement 
between  them  as  to  the  division  of  the  prize  if  awarded; 
the  jury  was  to  be  appointed  by  the  directors  of  the  Metro- 
politan Company  and  an  agreement  of  two-thirds  of  the 
members  was  to  be  necessary  to  an  award.     The  usual 


CONDITIONS  OF  THE  COMPETITION  171 

methods  for  preserving  anonymity  were  prescribed  and  the 
jury  empowered,  should  it  deem  it  expedient,  to  reopen  the 
contest  and  receive  additional  scores  "  for  a  period  of 
eighteen  months  after  the  contest  shall  have  been  reopened." 
The  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  pledged  itself  to  produce 
the  opera  during  the  season  following  the  award,  and  re- 
served for  itself  and  its  affiliated  theaters  exclusive  per- 
forming rights  in  the  United  States,  Canada,  Cuba,  and 
Mexico  for  a  period  of  five  years  without  payment  of  roy- 
alties or  other  compensation  to  the  authors,  and  the  same 
rights  for  five  succeeding  years  on  the  payment  of  royalties 
of  $75  for  each  act,  but  not  more  than  $150  for  the  entire 
opera.  The  company  also  reserved  to  itself  and  its  affilia- 
tions performing  rights  on  fixed  terms  of  royalty  payments 
on  the  operas  which  might  be  submitted  other  than  that  win- 
ning the  prize.  The  other  conditions  of  the  contest  were 
immaterial. 

About  three  months  before  the  expiration  of  the  two 
years'  term  the  report  became  current  that  the  directors 
intended  to  extend  the  period  of  competition  for  a  year,  and 
there  was  a  decided  flurry  of  protest  and  indignation  among 
the  composers  who  had  submitted  scores  and  their  friends. 
Mr.  Kahn,  questioned  by  newspaper  reporters,  admitted  that 
such  action  had  been  taken.  This  was  plainly  outside  the 
province  of  the  company  and  was  denied  by  an  official  state- 
ment put  forth  on  September  12,  1910,  which  characterized 
the  report  as  an  erroneous  impression  which  "  seemed  to 
prevail,"  and  stated  that  the  contest  would  be  closed  on 
September  15.  The  jury  selected  by  the  directors  in  De- 
cember was  composed  of  Alfred  Hertz,  one  of  the  con- 
ductors of  the  Metropolitan  Company ;  Walter  Damrosch, 
George  W.  Chadwick,  and  Charles  Martin  Loeffier.  They 
set  about  the  examination  of  the  scores  submitted  in  com- 
petition to  the  number  of  thirty,  and  on  May  2,  1911,  an- 
nounced the  award  of  the  prize  to  an  opera  entitled  "  Mona," 
the  composer  of  the  music  of  which  was  Horatio  W.  Parker 


172  THE  PRIZE  WINNERS 

and  the  author  of  the  libretto  Brian  Hooker.  The  former, 
then  and  still  Professor  of  Music  at  Yale  University,  had 
long  been  known  as  a  composer  in  the  United  States  as 
well  as  England,  where  performances  of  his  oratorio  "  Hora 
Novissima  "  in  1899  at  the  Three  Choirs  Festival  in  Worces- 
ter and  later  at  the  Chester  Festival,  and  of  "  A  Wanderer's 
Psalm  "  at  the  Hereford  Festival,  won  him  such  repute  that 
in  1902  he  was  honored  by  Cambridge  University  with  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Music.  Mr.  Hooker,  a  Yale  graduate 
in  1904,  was  instructor  of  rhetoric  in  the  university  from 
1906  to  1909.  A  consideration  of  the  merits  and  demerits 
of  "  Mona  "  may  be  deferred  until  the  story  of  the  season 
in  which  it  was  performed  is  told. 

Interest  in  English  opera  grew  apace  after  the  award  of 
the  Metropolitan  Company's  prize.  Straightway  there  was 
a  great  ado  in  the  newspapers  about  English  opera  and 
operas  in  English.  And  a  certain  man  named  Tito  Ricordi, 
speaking  down  Boston  way,  where  baleful  prophecies  were 
rife  touching  the  future  of  the  Boston  Company,  proclaimed 
that  the  burden  resting  on  the  country  was  a  paucity  of 
opera,  not  the  surfeit  that  seemed  to  be  indicated  by  the 
disastrous  season  through  which  New  York  had  but  re- 
cently passed.  So  Mr.  Ricordi  was  invited  to  sit  down  at 
dinner  in  New  York  with  managers,  composers,  singers,  and 
critics  and  further  expound.  Being  a  man  with  a  heart  in 
the  cause,  albeit  a  foreigner,  he  talked  right  eloquently  about 
the  excellence  of  the  English  language  in  song,  the  pro- 
digious talent  of  American  singers,  and  the  folly  of  send- 
ing them  abroad  to  learn  how  to  pronounce  foreign  words 
badly.  There  should  be  a  great  national  institution  in  the 
United  States,  he  said,  where  they  might  learn  to  sing  Eng- 
lish ;  and,  chiefly,  there  should  be  English  opera  companies 
permanently  housed  in  forty  or  fifty  American  cities.  Very 
disinterested  was  this  advice  of  Mr.  Ricordi,  of  course,  for 
he  was  drawing  royalties  from  only  one-third  of  all  the 
performances  giving  at  the  Metropolitan  at  the  time,  and 


AN  AGITATION  FOR  NATIONAL  OPERA  173 

he  did  no  more  than  hope  that  he  might  supply  the  forty  or 
fifty  theaters  of  his  dream  (which  was  like  that  of  Mr. 
Hammerstein  and  the  Metropolitan  Company)  with  more 
Butterflies,  Toscas,  Bohemians,  and  Girls  of  the  Golden 
West.  But  before  he  returned  to  his  native  Italy  the  oper- 
atic muse  had  changed  her  complexion,  and  Mr.  Ricordi 
said  that  he  didn't  mean  opera  at  popular  prices,  but  costly 
and  aristocratic  opera  like  that  at  the  Metropolitan.  And 
so  he  spoiled  his  pretty  evangel. 

Another  effect  of  the  competition  was  the  organization  of 
a  "  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Opera  in  English,"  which 
aimed,  as  its  proclamation  put  it,  "  to  advocate  and  main- 
tain the  principle  that  American  opera-goers  should  be  en- 
abled to  understand  and  more  fully  enjoy  opera  by  hearing 
it  sung  clearly  to  them  as  frequently  as  possible  in  their 
own  language."  Foreign  operas  were  not  to  be  cast  into 
utter  and  outer  darkness;  all  that  could  reasonably  be  ex- 
pected was  that  "  side  by  side  with  German,  French,  and 
Italian  the  language  of  this  country  shall  be  given  equal 
dignity  and  importance  in  those  opera  houses  by  the  per- 
formance of  standard  and  new  works  in  English  and  the 
gradual  organization  of  companies  properly  fitted  to  inter- 
pret opera  in  the  tongue  of  the  great  mass  of  opera-goers." 
This  document  was  signed  by  David  Bispham,  Reginald  dc 
Koven,  Walter  Damrosch,  Horatio  Parker,  Charles  Henry 
Meltzer,  and  Albert  Mildenberg.  If  the  organization  still 
exists  it  is  only  on  paper  or  in  the  minds  of  its  self-consti- 
tuted officers.  My  impression  is  that  it  talked  itself  to  death 
in  a  single  meeting. 

Still  another  product  of  the  agitation  was  a  movement 
inaugurated  by  a  substantial  civic  institution  which  resulted 
in  a  serious  and  resolute  effort  to  put  into  concrete  form 
what  had  thitherto  been  merely  floating,  fleeting,  futile,  floc- 
culent  effusion  of  speech.  At  a  luncheon  of  the  City  Club 
in  the  spring  of  1912  the  subject  of  opera  was  the  order  of 
the  day.  Again,  in  the  words  of  the  double  who  undid  Dr. 


174  ACTION  TAKEN  BY  THE  CITY  CLUB 

Hale,  everything  that  had  been  said  was  again  said  and  so 
well  said  by  composers,   singers,  managers,  and  patriotic 
promoters  of  opera  that  further  speech  on  the  topic  became 
an  impertinence  unless  followed  by  action  of  some  sort.    At 
the  end  the  president  of  the  club  appointed  a  committee 
charged  to  investigate  the  question  and  ascertain  whether  or 
not  it  was  feasible  to  produce  first-class  opera  in  New  York 
at  popular  prices — meaning  the  prices  prevalent  at  the  thea- 
ters in  general.     The  committee  consisted  of  Edward  Kel- 
logg Baird  (chairman),  William  C.  Corn  well,  Edward  R. 
Finch,   Otto   H.   Kahn,   Roland   Holt,    Norman   Hapgood, 
Isaac  N.  Seligman,  and  Arthur  E.  Stahlschmidt.    Its  inqui- 
ries made  during  the  ensuing  twelvemonth  we  were  assured 
went  with  particularity  into  the  circumstances  surrounding 
operatic  production  at  the  municipal  theaters  of  Italy,  Ger- 
many, and  France;   their  cost,  management,  subsidies,  and 
deficits.    As  a  result  it  drew  up  a  report  which  laid  down  a 
plan  for  "  the  production  of  Municipal  Opera  in  the  city  of 
New  York."    The  title  was  a  misnomer;  but  that  does  not 
matter  much.     Municipal  opera  on  the  European  continent 
is  opera  under  the  supervision  of  municipal  government  and 
enjoying  its  financial  support.     As  a  rule,  so  far  as  my 
knowledge  goes,   the  theater  is  owned  by  the  city,   and, 
though  its  management  may  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  les- 
sees, the  economic  as  well  as  the  artistic  administration  is 
under  the  care  of  an  officer  of  the  city  government.    In  this 
sense  a  municipal  opera  is  as  inconceivable  in  the  United 
States  as  a  municipal  playhouse.     The  proposition  of  the 
committee  embraced  these  features:    a  fund  of  $450,000 
was  to  be  raised  for  the  purpose  of  producing  opera  at  popu- 
lar prices  for  three  years,  subscriptions  to  this  fund  being 
payable  in  instalments  covering  the  period ;    for  the  first 
year  $52,761.00  was  required  for  the  purchase  of  scenery, 
costumes,  etc. ;   the  cost  of  producing  opera  was  estimated 
at  $14,500  per  week,  or  $232,000  for  two  seasons  of  eight 
weeks  which  were  contemplated  at  the  time — four  weeks 


OUTLINE  OF  THE  CITY  CLUB'S  PROJECT  175 

before  the  Metropolitan  season  and  four  weeks  after ;  esti- 
mating the  receipts  at  two-thirds  of  the  capacity  of  the 
house,  they  would  amount  to  $199,547,  leaving  a  deficit 
of  $32,453 ;  this  deficit  would  be  diminished  from  year 
to  year  and  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  wear  be  wiped  out; 
the  management  of  the  enterprise  was  to  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  a  director,  American  or  foreign,  who  was  to  be 
given  freedom  of  action  in  the  selection  of  repertory  and 
artists,  but  was  to  carry  out  the  policy  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  "  as  outlined  from  time  to  time  "  and  be  responsi- 
ble to  it ;  the  repertory  was  to  be  cosmopolitan — English, 
French,  German,  and  Italian — but  no  experiments  were  to 
be  made  with  novelties;  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company 
was  to  furnish  properties,  costumes,  scenery,  etc.,  at  a  nomi- 
nal rental,  the  use  of  these  by  both  companies  being  feasible 
because  the  popular  season  was  to  begin  about  the  ist  of 
September,  1913,  and  there  would  thus  be  no  conflict  with 
the  Metropolitan  season,  at  the  beginning  of  which  members 
of  the  company,  including  chorus  and  ballet,  were  to  be  free 
to  accept  engagements  elsewhere ;  at  the  conclusion  of  the 
Metropolitan  season  1913-14  the  popular  season  was  to  be 
resumed  for  another  period  of  eight  weeks.  In  this  last 
feature  the  plan  was  little  else  than  a  parallel  with  the  ex- 
periment made  in  October,  1900,  when  Mr.  Henry  W.  Sav- 
age and  Mr.  Grau  formed  a  partnership  for  a  season  of 
English  opera  at  the  Metropolitan.  This  experiment,  more- 
over, had  the  additional  merit  of  being  a  really  intelligent 
and  dignified  effort  to  habilitate  not  only  opera  sung  in  the 
vernacular,  but  opera  composed  in  English.  The  company 
was  an  excellent  one,  Mr.  Savage  an  experienced  and  enter- 
prising manager,  and  the  repertory  of  the  season  given 
under  his  joint  management  with  Mr.  Grau  from  October 
to  December,  1900,  under  the  title  of  the  Metropolitan  Eng- 
lish Grand  Opera  Company,  while  it  contained  operettas 
(among  them  some  of  Gilbert  &  Sullivan's)  and  some  spe- 
cifically English  works  (Goring  Thomas's  "  Esmeralda " 


176    INCORPORATION  OF  THE  CENTURY  OPERA  CO. 

being  one),  was  otherwise  quite  as  pretentious  as  the  reper- 
tory of  the  regular  company  which  followed  it  save  that  it 
omitted  the  later  dramas  of  Wagner.  Its  list  of  singers  was 
made  up  to  a  considerable  extent  of  artists  who  had  gained 
routine  in  the  Carl  Rosa  Company  in  London  and  elsewhere 
in  Europe.  Yet  the  season  was  less  successful  than  the 
seasons  which  Mr.  Savage  had  been  accustomed  to  give  at 
the  theaters,  probably,  as  I  suggested  in  my  "  Chapters  of 
Opera,"  because  of  the  air  of  aristocracy  which  it  wore 
without  being  able  to  assume  the  social  importance  which 
belonged  only  to  the  foreign  exotic.  The  Century  Theater 
was  nominated  as  the  home  of  the  ambitious  new  under- 
taking because  it  had  been  built  with  a  view  to  co-operation 
between  it  and  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  which  made 
an  interchange  of  scenery  practicable.  Sops  were  thrown 
to  subscribers  by  the  offer  of  titles;  by  subscribing  for 
$1,000  or  more  one  became  a  "  Founder  of  Opera  for  the 
People  " ;  or  one  might  become  a  "  stockholder  "  for  from 
$100  to  $1,000,  or  a  "  subscribing  member  "  for  $100  or  less. 
The  plan  was  to  become  operative  on  the  receipt  of  sub- 
scriptions amounting  to  $300,000,  a  board  of  directors  was 
to  be  elected  by  the  founders  and  stockholders  on  the  basis 
of  the  amount  subscribed,  and  the  City  Club,  through  its 
board  of  trustees,  was  to  appoint  three  directors  each  year. 

On  May  4,  1913,  the  City  Club  announced  that  subscrip- 
tions amounting  to  one-third  of  the  $300,000  had  been  se- 
cured. Mr.  Kahn  subscribed  $30,000,  William  K.  Vander- 
bilt  and  Clarence  H.  Mackay  $15,000  each,  Harry  Payne 
Whitney  $5,000,  and  members  of  the  City  Club  $25,000. 
The  Century  Opera  Company  was  incorporated  on  May  9, 
1913,  with  a  capital  stock  of  $300,000  and  organized  by  the 
election  of  Edward  Kellogg  Baird,  president ;  Otto  H.  Kahn, 
vice-president;  Alvin  W.  Krech,  treasurer;  Edward  R. 
Finch,  secretary,  and  the  following  Board  of  Directors: 
Otto  H.  Kahn,  chairman ;  Edward  Kellogg  Baird,  Edmund 
L.  Baylies,  William  C.  Cornwell,  Andreas  Dippel,  Edward 


(  )TTO   1 1.  KAIIX 
Managing  Director  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company 


PLANS  FOR  THE  FIRST  SEASON  177 

R.  Finch,  Alvin  W.  Krech,  Thomas  W.  Lament,  Philip  M. 
Lydig,  Clarence  H.  Mackay,  George  McAneny,  Paul  M. 
Warburg,  Harry  Payne  Whitney,  Henry  Rogers  Winthrop, 
and  Frank  A.  Vanderlip.  These  gentlemen  made  a  fair 
representation  of  three  public  institutions :  the  Metropoli- 
tan Opera  House,  the  Century  Theater,  and  the  City  Club. 
They  chose  Milton  and  Sargent  Aborn  as  General  Man- 
agers of  the  company  and  intrusted  them  with  the  admin- 
istration of  the  first  season  of  opera,  which  began  at  the 
Century  Theater  on  September  15,  1913,  with  a  perform- 
ance in  English  of  "  Ai'da."  The  Messrs.  Aborn  had  had 
experience  in  giving  opera  of  the  crude  and  cheap  English 
variety,  their  peripatetic  companies  being  generally  made  up 
of  singers  who  had  gained  some  stage  experience  in  operetta 
or  native  and  foreign  companies,  and  novices  ambitious  to 
enter  the  operatic  field.  There  were  many  companies  like 
theirs  devastating  the  musical  territory  of  the  Middle  West, 
but,  backed  by  the  dignity  and  money  which  the  new  insti- 
tution afforded  them,  the  managers  organized  a  creditable 
and  capable  troupe,  which  contained  such  singers  as  Lois 
Ewell,  Elisabeth  Amsden,  Kathleen1  Howard,  Mary  Jordan, 
Morgan  Kingston,  Alfred  Kauffman,  Thomas  Chalmers, 
Gustav  Bergman,  Morton  Adkins,  and  Louis  Kreidler — a 
company  comparable  with  the  organizations  which  Mr.  Sav- 
age had  long  been  maintaining  "  on  the  road."  The  original 
plan  to  give  a  season  of  eight  weeks,  four  before  and  four 
after  the  Metropolitan  season,  was  abandoned  in  favor  of 
one  which  contemplated  thirty-five  continuous  weeks,  with 
six  evening  and  two  afternoon  performances  each  week, 
one  performance  of  the  opera  on  the  list  in  its  original 
tongue,  the  other  performances  in  English.  The  egregious 
absurdity  of  such  a  scheme  was  apparent  to  all  who  had 
made  even  a  cursory  observation  of  theatrical  and  operatic 
affairs,  but  it  was  still  further  emphasized  by  the  announce- 
ment that  the  repertory  would  be  made  up  of  thirty-three 
operas  and  that  the  last  three  weeks  would  be  devoted  to 


178         ACTIVITIES  OF  THE  NEW  ORGANIZATION 

three  representations  of  Wagner's  Nibelung  tetralogy  and 
eight  of  "  Parsifal." 

I  have  neither  time  nor  desire  to  enter  upon  a  discussion 
of  the  performances  of  the  company,  which  came  to  an  end 
on  April  18,  1914,  after  thirty-one  weeks  of  activity.  The 
season,  originally  planned  for  eight  weeks,  extended  by  the 
management  to  thirty-five,  was  curtailed  four  weeks  ostensi- 
bly to  allow  time  for  alterations  in  the  house  prior  to  the 
second  season.  About  the  middle  of  the  season  Mr.  Baird 
tendered  his  resignation  to  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the 
company  following  financial  difficulties  in  which  the  Century 
Opera  Magazine  (a  publication  of  which  he  was  the  chief 
promoter)  became  involved.  His  resignation  was  not  ac- 
cepted and  he  remained  a  member  of  the  directorate  in  the 
second  season  (1914-15),  which  terminated  in  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  enterprise.  During  the  thirty-one  weeks  of  the 
first  season  twenty-six  operas  were  produced.  No  new 
works  were  attempted,  and  those  announced  but  not  given 
were  "  Mignon,"  "King's  Children,"  "  Tannhauser," 
"Traviata,"  "Salome,"  "Tristan  und  Isolde,"  the  four 
dramas  of  "  The  Ring  of  the  Nibelung,"  and  "  The  Hugue- 
nots." The  failure  of  the  grandiose  Wagnerian  list  was 
not  at  all  deplorable,  though  its  performance  in  English 
might  have  made  a  significant  contribution  to  the  discussion 
of  the  practicability  and  value  of  translations.  Six  operas 
were  sung  in  their  original  tongue,  viz. :  "  Aida,"  "  La  Gio- 
conda,"  "  The  Jewels  of  the  Madonna,"  "  Madame  Butter- 
fly," "  Tosca,"  and  "  Lohengrin."  In  the  third  week  "  The 
Tales  of  Hoffmann  "  received  eight  performances  (in  Eng- 
lish). A  second  week  was  vouchsafed  to  this  opera  as  well 
as  to  "  Madame  Butterfly,"  "  Louise,"  "  Hansel  and  Gretel," 
"  Aida,"  and  "  Thais."  Humperdinck's  fairy  opera  was 
associated  with  performances  by  the  International  Ballet. 
It  received  29  performances  in  all,  "  Aida  "  and  "  The  Tales 
of  Hoffmann"  17,  "Madame  Butterfly"  and  "Thais"  16, 
and  "  Louise  "15.  The  operas  not  mentioned  in  this  enu- 


FAILURE  AND  ITS  CAUSES  179 

meration  were :  "  Lucia,"  "  Samson  and  Dalilah,"  "  Faust," 
"  The  Bohemian  Girl,"  "  Carmen,"  "  Boheme,"  "  Romeo  and 
Juliet,"  "Rigoletto,"  "  Cavalleria  Rusticana,"  "  Manon," 
"  The  Secret  of  Suzanne,"  "  Pagliacci,"  "  Tiefland,"  "  Mar- 
tha," and  "  Natoma."  There  were  signs  of  disaffection  in 
March,  1914,  when  Alfred  Szendrei,  conductor  of  the  com- 
pany, in  a  letter  to  the  newspapers  declared  that  the  orches- 
tra and  chorus  were  incompetent,  the  rehearsals  insufficient 
in  number,  and  that  he  had  been  ashamed  of  many  of  the 
performances  which  he  had  conducted.  To  this  the  General 
Managers  retorted  that  Mr.  Szendrei  was  disaffected  be- 
cause he  had  not  been  re-engaged  for  the  next  season.  A 
week  later  the  Messrs.  Aborn  announced  that,  despite 
rumors  to  the  contrary,  English  operas  would  be  given  at 
the  Century  Theater  in  1914-15,  but  for  only  29  weeks  in- 
stead of  35.  In  May  they  proclaimed  that  the  exclusive  use 
of  English,  which  had  become  the  rule  after  the  early  weeks, 
would  be  abandoned  and  all  operas  be  sung  in  the  original 
languages.  The  policy  of  devoting  an  entire  week  to  a 
single  opera  was  also  abandoned.  A  few  weeks  of  the  sea- 
son 1914-15  sufficed  to  disclose  that  financial  losses  much 
greater  than  those  made  in  the  first  season  confronted  the 
company.  The  receipts  at  the  box-office  showed  a  falling 
off  of  forty  per  cent.  The  General  Managers  advised  that 
the  company  be  transferred  to  Chicago,  where  they  thought 
financial  and  social  conditions  had  been  less  affected  by  the 
war  than  in  New  York.  This  was  done,  but  the  change 
resulted  in  no  betterment  of  the  company's  affairs.  Mr. 
Kahn  withdrew  from  the  directorate,  though  he  still  offered 
generous  financial  support  to  the  undertaking  on  conditions 
looking  to  a  more  permanent  foundation;  but  after  six 
weeks  in  the  Northwestern  metropolis  the  season  was  sum- 
marily closed  and  the  company  disbanded. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Mr.  Baird  I  am  able  to  present 
some  figures  from  the  report  of  certified  accountants  touch- 
ing the  first  season  which  may  be  of  value  to  future  experi- 


i8o  AN  ANALYSIS  BY  MR.  BAIRD 

menters  in  the  field  of  popular  opera.  The  average  weekly 
receipts  were  $11,961.19,  the  average  weekly  expenditures 
$13,695.60,  making  a  net  loss  for  the  season  of  $53,766.71. 
In  the  first  16  weeks  there  was  an  actual  profit  of  $9,202.90; 
in  the  last  15  weeks  a  loss  of  $79,712.28.  This  would  seem 
to  me  to  indicate  a  total  loss  of  $70,910.18  instead  of  $53,- 
766.71  as  based  on  the  difference  between  the  average 
weekly  receipts  and  expenditures.  The  company,  says  Mr. 
Baird,  "  suffered  its  first  big  loss  in  the  fourteenth  week  with 
the  production  of  '  The  Bohemian  Girl.'  The  directors  were 
strongly  opposed  to  producing  that  opera,  but  the  manage- 
ment urged  that  it  was  a  '  sure  fire '  opera  on  the  road,  and 
they  took  full  responsibility  for  including  it  in  the  repertoire." 
The  next  large  loss  occurred  in  the  seventeenth  week,  when 
"  Louise  "  was  the  repeated  bill.  At  the  first  eight  perform- 
ances of  the  opera  the  company  made  a  profit  of  $134.38; 
at  the  second  the  company  incurred  a  loss  of  $4,560.78. 
"  In  every  instance  of  a  repetition,"  says  Mr.  Baird,  "  the 
company  suffered  a  big  loss.  The  repetition  of  several 
operas  that  had  already  been  produced  at  eight  perform- 
ances earlier  in  the  season  lost  the  company  over  $25,000  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  season.  The  reason  for  this  is  per- 
fectly plain.  The  public  had  been  absorbed.  There  were 
not  enough  people  who  had  not  seen  the  opera  that  season 
and  who  wanted  to  see  it  to  justify  its  repetition.  Hence  to 
repeat  meant  a  sure  loss.  Here  again  the  policy  of  the  man- 
agement must  be  brought  into  question.  The  directors  did 
not  favor  the  numerous  repetitions.  It  is  against  all  the 
traditions  of  opera  production.  Several  members  of  the 
board  were  also  members  of  the  Metropolitan  board.  That 
company  in  all  its  history  had  never  given  sixteen  perform- 
ances of  the  same  opera  in  one  season.  In  fact,  it  is  the 
policy  of  that  company  never  to  give  a  repetition  of  an 
opera  in  the  same  week.  They  even  go  further  than  that — 
they  never  announce  the  repetition  of  an  opera  the  week  it 
is  on  the  boards,  for  the  reason,  as  Mr.  Gatti  says,  '  to  pre- 


NEGATIVE  RESULTS  OF  THE  EXPERIMENT        181 

vent  its  drawing  against  itself.' "  There  is  validity  in  Mr. 
Baird's  contention,  but  his  comparison  of  the  first  half  of 
the  season  with  the  second  half,  as  well  as  his  reference  to 
the  policy  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  needs  ampli- 
fication. In  the  second  half  of  the  season  the  Century  Com- 
pany was  in  competition  with  the  Metropolitan  season ;  the 
Century  Company  gave  eight  performances  a  week  for  31 
weeks,  the  Metropolitan  Company  six  performances  a  week 
for  23  weeks;  the  Century  Company  produced  26  operas, 
none  of  them  unfamiliar  to  the  public,  the  Metropolitan  36 
operas,  of  which  five  were  novelties;  to  satisfy  the  sub- 
scribers of  the  Metropolitan  every  novelty  must  be  given 
at  least  five  times,  but  it  is  impossible  to  give  that  number 
of  performances  to  every  opera  in  the  list ;  boxholders  or 
subscribers  to  all  the  evenings  and  afternoons  of  the  season 
would  not  tolerate  five  performances  in  succession  of  any 
work — a  changing  audience  might,  as  we  see  from  the  fact 
that  a  dozen  new  plays  may  run  an  entire  season  in  as  many 
theaters  in  New  York  without  exhausting  the  theatrical 
public  of  the  city,  including  the  visitors  within  its  gates; 
opera  is  in  a  different  case. 

The  extraordinary  auspices  under  which  the  experiment 
was  made  and  the  fact  that  it  combined  the  two  elements, 
generally  disassociated,  of  popular  opera  in  different  lan- 
guages and  popular  opera  wholly  in  the  vernacular,  differ- 
entiated the  performances  of  the  Century  Opera  Company 
from  those  of  the  hundreds  of  its  predecessors  made  during 
a  longer  period  than  any  living  memory  can  compass.  The 
questions  raised  found  no  solution,  for  the  season  proved 
disastrous  and  the  performances  in  themselves,  though 
sometimes  highly  creditable,  offered  nothing  with  which  the 
public  was  not  familiar.  The  controversy  as  to  the  relative 
popularity  of  what  may  for  the  sake  of  discussion  be  called 
the  foreign  and  the  native  forms  of  the  lyric  drama  had 
been  carried  on  in  New  York  for  eighty  years  with  success 
in  the  earlier  days  leaning  now  toward  one  side,  now  toward 


i82    USE  OF  THE  VERNACULAR  IN  FOREIGN  OPERAS 

the  other,  but  in  latter  days  going  steadily  toward  the  ex- 
otic. Even  in  connection  with  the  Century  season  I  find  the 
memorandum  in  my  records  that  the  nights  on  which  the 
operas  were  given  in  their  original  tongues  were  the  best 
patronized — a  circumstance  explained  largely,  if  not  wholly, 
by  the  greater  fondness  for  opera  of  the  city's  citizens  of 
foreign  birth  than  that  of  the  native.  In  respect  of  this, 
then,  the  best  that  can  be  said  for  the  experiment  in  its  first 
phase  is  that  it  was  inconclusive.  Nor  was  anything  con- 
tributed by  the  performances  to  the  solution  of  the  question 
concerning  the  advisability  of  substituting  English  for  the 
original  languages  in  our  operatic  representations  generally, 
in  "  nationalizing  "  the  art-form,  as  the  champions  of  the 
exclusive  use  of  the  vernacular  are  fond  of  saying.  On  this 
point  let  me  speak  now,  and  if  possible  let  it  be  understood 
that  I  do  so  as  a  staunch  and  devout  well-wisher  of  English 
or  American  opera.  Considerations  which  ought  to  be  ob- 
vious to  every  cultivated  mind  determined  the  question  of 
what  language  can  most  righteously  be  employed  in  an  oper- 
atic performance  on  the  day  when  the  art-form  was  born. 
The  proper  language  in  which  to  sing  operatic  music  from 
an  ideal  point  of  view  is  the  language  for  which  the  music 
was  composed,  the  only  language  to  which  the  musical  idiom 
is  native. 

It  is  as  destructive  of  the  spirit  of  Italian  or  German  or 
French  music  to  sing  it  in  English  as  it  would  be  to  sing 
English  opera  in  Italian,  German,  or  French.  No  para- 
phrase can  be  fitted  to  music  without  some  loss  to  the  beauty 
and  potency  of  the  original  text  as  well  as  the  music.  The 
beauty,  like  an  exhalation,  vanishes.  No  people  can  feel 
the  power  of  the  phrase,  "  For  the  Lord  God  omnipotent 
reigneth,"  in  Handel's  "  Hallelujah  "  chorus  like  the  Eng- 
lish, unless  it  be  sung  in  the  original  and  understood.  There 
is  no  English,  French,  or  German  equivalent  for  "  O,  patria 
mia,  mai  piu  ti  rivedro,"  as  it  is  made  to  sound  by  Verdi, 
nor  in  any  language  but  German  for  that  exhalation  of 


ESSENTIALS  OF  A  GOOD  TRANSLATION  183 

Isolde's  spirit,  "  Mild  und  leise  wie  er  lachelt."  The  essence 
of  French  melody  departs  when  another  vessel  is  substi- 
tuted for  French  verse  in  French  lyrics.  These  are  facts, 
incontrovertible,  enduring  because  they  rest  upon  the  genius 
of  national  art. 

Assuming  that  it  is  essential  that  the  words  of  an  opera 
be  understood — a  fact  that  I  am  entirely  willing  to  admit, 
so  far  at  least  as  operas  of  the  most  modern  type  are  con- 
cerned— what  is  to  be  done  to  make  opera  in  the  vernacular 
palatable?  Shall  we  educate  the  public  down  to  the  level 
of  the  mass  of  translated  texts  or  reform  the  repertory  ab 
initiof  If  the  latter,  what  shall  be  done  for  the  people  who 
have  acquired  a  liking  for  operas  whose  texts,  reasonable  in 
the  original  tongues,  become  prosaic  and  absurd  in  transla- 
tion ?  "  Carmen  "  is  an  admired  opera,  deservedly  so ;  yet 
how  many  of  us  would  preserve  a  serious  frame  of  mind  if 
we  were  to  hear  Zuniga  ask  of  Don  Jose  in  melodious  reci- 
tative :  "  Is  yon  building  the  factory  at  which  young  girls 
are  employed  at  cigarette-making?"  Who  that  has  heard 
"  Lohengrin  "  in  English  has  not  smiled  broadly  at  the  climax 
of  the  scene  before  the  cathedral  when  the  knight  of  the  swan 
turns  at  the  foot  of  the  steps  and  rings  out  the  question: 
"  Elsa,  with  whom  conversest  thou?  "  Perhaps  the  truthful 
relation  of  an  incident  of  the  Century  Company's  season 
will  help  elucidate  this  point.  On  November  4,  1913,  at  4 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  I  sat  in  my  chair  at  the  theater 
and  saw  Bide-the-Bent  enter  a  hall  in  the  castle  of  Sir 
Henry  Ashton,  where  a  lot  of  wedding-guests  were  making 
a  jubilation,  and  informed  them  that  Lucy  Ashton  (or 
rather,  Lucia,  for  Lucy  doesn't  fit  the  music)  had  killed  her 
husband  immediately  after  the  ceremony  of  marriage.  It 
was  startling  news,  though  no  one  would  have  thought  it 
from  the  conduct  of  the  merry  company,  nor  even  from  the 
words  of  the  messenger,  which,  though  they  look  somewhat 
disjointed,  ungrammatical,  and  repetitious  in  print,  flowed 
quite  placidly  on  a  stream  of  tune  nicely  punctuated  with 


i84  ABSURDITIES  IN  ENGLISH  VERSIONS 

reiterations  by  the  chorus.     This  was  how  Bide-the-Bent 
conveyed  the  tidings : 

Cease  ye,  O,  cease  these  sounds  of  gladness, 

Grief  I  bring  ye,  a  dire  misfortune. 

From  the  chamber  where,  sad  and  silent, 

To  her  Lord  I  Lucy  guided; 

Cries  of  anguish  broke  loud  upon  us, 

'Twixt  suspicion  and  fear  sore  divided, 

Terror  seized  me;  I  burst  upon  them; 

Sight  of   dread  appalled  my  senses. 

By  her  husband  the  bride  was  kneeling; 

In  her  hand  she  held  the  dagger, 

And  her  anguish  recommences. 

Wretched  maid  !     She'd  slain  her  husband ! 

Gazing  near,  and  from  her  lips  a  smile  broke  forth. 

Ah !    Her  spirit  most  unhappy, 

Reason's  bonds  had  cast  away; 

Her  spirit  unhappy, 

Her  spirit  most  unhappy, 

Reason's  bonds,  yes,  reason's  bonds  had  cast  away. 

Ah !    Heaven  in  mercy  the  crime  forgive  her ! 

Sad  was  her  fate,  cruel  hatred's  prey, 

Sad  was  her  fate,  cruel  hatred's  prey. 

Gazing  forth  with  eyes  all  vacant, 

In  her  hand  she  held  a  dagger. 

Ah !     May  heaven  the  crime  forgive  her ! 

Sad  was  her  fate,  cruel  hatred's  prey, 

Sad  was  her  fate,  cruel  hatred's  prey, 

Sad  was  her  fate !     Ah,  yes !     Sad  was  her  fate ; 

Ah,  yes !  sad  was  her  fate. 

Mr.  Alfred  Kauffman  sang  these  words  and  enunciated 
them  with  a  distinctness  which  was  painful  and  which  made 
some  of  his  hearers  realize  what  was  meant  by  him  who  said 
that  words  which  were  too  foolish  to  be  spoken  might  be 
sung.  But  it  really  did  not  seem  to  signify  much,  so  far  as 
the  people  who  heard  them  on  this  occasion  were  concerned. 
It  was  opera;  it  was  opera  in  English;  it  was  opera  at 
popular  prices ;  that  sufficed  the  audience.  To  proceed 
with  the  argument :  In  the  opera  of  today  it  is  peculiarly 
essential  that  a  fine  regard  for  the  music  be  had  in  trans- 
lating operatic  texts  into  English.  Addison  thought  so  as 


THE  ALLIANCE  BETWEEN  WORDS  AND  MUSIC    185 

long  as  two  hundred  years  ago.  He  not  only  pleaded  in  his 
way  for  English  opera  and  wrote  the  book  of  one,  but  he 
assailed  Italian  opera,  whether  in  the  original  or  translated 
form  (or,  as  was  the  habit  in  his  day,  in  both  tongues), 
with  his  prettiest  wit.  In  one  case  he  tells  of  an  Italian 
line  which  read,  literally,  "  And  turns  my  rage  into  pity," 
but  for  the  sake  of  rhyme  was  translated,  "  And  into  pity 
turns  my  rage."  By  this  means,  he  says,  the  soft  notes 
which  were  attached  to  pity  in  the  Italian  fell  upon  the  word 
rage  in  the  English,  and  the  angry  sounds  which  were  tuned 
to  rage  in  the  original  were  made  to  express  pity  in  the 
translation.  Are  there  English  versions  of  foreign  scores 
which  could  stand  such  a  test  today?  Would  it  not  be  nec- 
essary first  to  appoint  a  commission  of  literary  musicians, 
or  musical  literary  men,  to  retranslate  all  of  the  operas  for 
the  English  repertory?  I  open  some  of  the  scores  most  con- 
veniently at  hand.  In  the  English  "  Parsifal "  in  a  passage 
of  Kundry's  recital  to  Parsifal,  "  Thy  father's  love  and 
death  "  is  given  as  "  Thy  father's  death  and  love,"  whereby 
a  sweet  consonant  harmony  falls  upon  the  word  death  and 
a  poignant  dissonance  on  love. 

There  are  other  phases  of  the  question  which  invite  con- 
sideration. It  involves  not  only  a  knowledge  of  the  art  of 
singing,  pure  and  simple,  i.  e.  the  art  of  vocalization,  but 
also  a  knowledge  of  the  art  of  diction,  and  this  on  the  part 
of  the  composer  and  maker  of  the  book  as  well  as  the  singer. 
From  the  composer  it  exacts  this  knowledge  plus  the  capac- 
ity to  give  the  drama  musical  expression  in  the  spirit  of  the 
people  for  whom  he  writes  and  whose  language  he  employs. 
Our  singers  have  not  been  trained  in  English  song  in  the 
sense  that  the  students  of  French  song  have  been  trained 
since  the  establishment  of  the  French  school  of  music,  or 
the  Germans  since  Wagner  gave  them  a  distinctively  na- 
tional art.  There  was  a  brief  blossoming  of  English  art 
under  Purcell,  but  all  that  has  survived  (the  ballad  operas 
which  rejoiced  the  souls  of  Englishmen  and  Americans  in 


186        THE  POOR  DICTION  OF  ENGLISH  SINGERS 

the  eighteenth  century  and  the  mongrel  works  of  Balfe  and 
Wallace)  is  found  in  the  operettas  of  Gilbert  &  Sullivan — 
works  worthy  of  study  by  the  creative  as  well  as  interpreta- 
tive artists  of  today,  from  this  point  of  view  as  well  as 
others.  It  is  significant,  but  humiliating,  that  the  singers  of 
English  at  the  Century  Theater  and  Metropolitan  Opera 
House  who  have  been  most  intelligible  have  been  foreigners, 
and  this  despite  the  handicap  of  their  foreign  accent.  More- 
over, it  is  the  affectation  and  conceit  of  so-called  "  grand 
opera  "  singers  and  composers  which  has  helped  to  make 
them  unintelligible  in  English.  Singers  and  composers  in 
the  field  of  musical  comedies  and  operettas  have  little  dif- 
ficulty in  making  them  understood.  There  is  an  analogy 
here  with  the  notoriously  poor  acting  of  opera  singers.  "  I 
am  not  here  to  act,  but  to  sing,"  said  an  indignant  comic 
opera  tenor  to  Mr.  Barker,  the  English  stage-manager,  when 
he  was  employed  at  the  Casino  in  New  York.  "  God  forbid 
that  I  should  ever  undertake  to  tell  a  tenor  how  to  act !  " 
was  the  fervid  reply ;  "  I  am  only  trying  to  tell  you  how  to 
get  on  the  stage."  And  then  he  told  me  that  the  everlasting 
torment  which  he  expected  for  his  misdeeds  on  earth  was 
to  have  to  train  opera  tenors  in  heaven — or  hell — I  have 
forgotten  to  which  place  he  had  consigned  himself. 

We  need,  then,  a  national  school  of  composition  as  well 
as  of  singing.  How  shall  it  be  created  ?  Not  by  prize  com- 
petitions ;  not  by  subventions,  private  or  public ;  not  by  the 
piling  up  of  costly  buildings  and  dubbing  them  "  national " 
opera  houses ;  nor  yet  by  the  establishment  and  mainte- 
nance of  gigantic  educational  institutions.  If  these  things 
could  beget  a  national  art,  England  ought  long  ago  to  have 
had  it.  These  things  are  helpful,  but  they  are  not  determi- 
native. The  determinative  factor,  if  an  answer  to  the  ques- 
tion may  be  ventured  upon,  is  the  coming  of  a  creative 
genius  who  shall  by  concrete  example  point  the  way  to  the 
goal  and  compel  a  following.  He  may  be  a  product  of 
earlier  strivings  (as  Wagner  was  the  continuator  of  Gluck, 


A  NATIONAL  SCHOOL  OF  COMPOSERS  NEEDED    187 

Beethoven,  Weber,  and  Marschner),  but  he  must  be  strong 
enough  to  hew  out  an  individual  path,  which  shall  be  allur- 
ing to  his  people  and  along  which  his  contemporaries  and 
successors  shall  gladly  follow  him,  so  that  they,  too,  may 
reap  of  his  success  and  his  glory.  Two  factors  are  here  set 
down  as  essential:  the  genius  who  shall  strike  out  the  na- 
tional notion  and  the  geniuses  who  shall  adopt  the  notion 
and  present  it  again  in  their  manner.  The  imitation  need 
not,  indeed  it  must  not,  be  slavish.  Only  one  German  com- 
poser since  Wagner  has  successfully  applied  that  great 
musical  dramatist's  system,  and  he,  Humperdinck,  knew 
how  to  modify  it  so  that  it  might  become  subservient  to  the 
individualism  of  his  style  and  his  subjects.  All  others — I 
might  make  an  exception  in  the  case  of  Richard  Strauss — 
have  failed  because  they  could  not  mix  original  inspiration 
with  reflection.  They  copied  the  body  only;  they  could  not 
copy  the  spirit.  Purcell  had  no  successors  in  England  be- 
cause before  a  capable  man  arose  the  Italian  exotic  had 
struck  root  in  the  soil  of  English  fashion  and  was  nurtured, 
as  it  has  been  ever  since,  by  the  aristocracy. 

The  foundations  of  all  national  schools  of  music  in 
Europe,  with  the  exception  of  the  French  and  Italian,  rest 
on  folksong  idioms ;  but  the  foundations  were  laid  by  such 
forward  men  as  the  Scandinavian  Gade  and  Grieg,  the  Pole 
Chopin,  the  Russian  Glinka,  and  the  Bohemian  Smetana. 
In  each  of  these  cases  there  was  an  element  of  national  char- 
acter which  was  imitated  from  the  folksong  of  the  various 
peoples,  but  the  force  which  impressed  this  element  upon 
the  artistic  music  of  the  world,  which  introduced  the  char- 
acteristic flavor  into  the  art-works  written  in  classic  forms, 
or  modified  those  forms  so  that  the  vessel  might  the  better 
hold  the  contents,  was  the  individual  genius  of  the  men  who 
struck  out  the  new  paths. 

The  risibles  of  every  veteran  observer  of  the  opera,  espe- 
cially of  every  veteran  reviewer  for  the  press,  are  excited 
whenever  there  is  a  discussion  of  the  question  of  English 


i88       FALSE  ASSERTIONS  ABOUT  AMERICAN  OPERA 

opera  by  the  calm  assumption  of  youthful  enthusiasts  or 
their  old  exploiters  that  the  subject  is  novel.  "  English 
opera  has  never  had  a  fair  trial,"  say  they,  yet  English  opera 
is  nearly  if  not  quite  two  hundred  years  old  in  America; 
"  American  composers  have  never  had  an  opportunity,"  yet 
native  operas  are  as  old  in  America  as  native  plays ;  "  our 
singers  have  never  had  a  chance  to  show  what  they  can  do," 
yet  American  sopranos,  contraltos,  tenors,  and  basses  have 
graced  the  boards  of  Europe  and  America  for  three-quarters 
of  a  century  and  one  of  the  tuneful  tribe,  the  daughter  of  a 
Boston  shoemaker,  sang  her  way  to  the  titular  throne  of 
Portugal.  That  our  singers  have  not  been  as  numerous  in 
our  fashionable  opera  houses  as  the  foreign  contingent  is 
true,  but  the  reason  lies  in  the  attitude  of  the  public  toward 
opera  which  has  compelled  managers  to  employ  the  best  tal- 
ent to  be  found  the  world  over.  Great  talent  has  never  gone 
begging  for  recognition  because  it  was  American.  Opera 
in  America,  as  I  have  had  many  occasions  to  remind  dis- 
contented, impatient,  and  uninformed  enthusiasts,  is  much 
older  than  they  think.  Traces  of  it  are  found  in  the  theat- 
rical records  of  the  early  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  the  English  type  of  opera  as  it  flourished  in  its  native 
habitat  was  industriously  cultivated  in  the  Colonies  and 
States  of  America  from  1749  to  1825,  in  which  latter  year 
Italian  opera  came  to  compete  with  it ;  and  it  has  been  in- 
dustriously cultivated  ever  since  from  coast  to  coast.  It 
would  profit  those  who  wish  to  speak  intelligently  on  the 
subject  to  consult  what  Mr.  O.  G.  Sonneck  and  other  his- 
torians have  written  about  it,  as  well  as  to  scan  the  pages 
of  the  "  Catalogue  of  Opera  Librettos  Printed  Before  1800," 
compiled  by  Mr.  Sonneck  for  the  Library  of  Congress.  A 
great  deal  could  be  written  about  the  use  of  American  sub- 
jects by  native  and  foreign  librettists  and  composers  as  set 
forth  in  that  confessedly  incomplete  list.  Native  operas  do 
not  of  necessity  require  native  or  national  subjects,  but  if 
they  are  wanted  it  will  be  found  that  our  woods  are  literally 


AMERICAN  SUBJECTS  USED  IN  OPERAS  189 

as  well  as  metaphorically  full  of  them.  There  was  abun- 
dance of  romance  in  our  early  social  and  political  history,  as 
anybody  may  learn  by  a  perusal  of  the  books  written  about 
us  by  our  European  visitors  in  the  period  immediately  be- 
fore and  after  the  war  of  the  revolution.  Let  me  glance 
at  a  few  titles  taken  from  Mr.  Sonneck's  catalogue,  which 
indicate  the  character  of  the  musical  plays  :  "  The  American 
Adventurers  " ;  "  The  American  Indian  " ;  "  L' Americana 
in  Europa,"  an  Italian  ballet ;  "  L'Americano,"  set  to  music 
by  Piccinni ;  "  The  Cherokee,"  set  by  Stephen  Storace ; 
"  Columbus ;  or,  A  World  Discovered  " ;  "  The  Fair  Ameri- 
can," for  which  Thomas  Carter  wrote  the  music  and  which 
was  produced  at  Drury  Lane,  London,  on  May  18,  1782 ; 
"  La  Familie  Americaine,"  words  by  "  Citoyen  "  Bouilly, 
who  wrote  the  libretto  on  which  "  Fidelio  "  is  based,  music 
by  "  Citoyen  "  Dalayrac ;  "  Le  Huron  " ;  "  Gli  Inglesi  in 
America,"  a  ballet.  None  of  these  titles  piques  curiosity  so 
much  as  a  German  play  with  music  entitled  "  Pocahontas," 
printed  in  Jamestown  in  1784  and  the  same  year  in  Ansbach, 
Germany.  A  Johann  Wilhelm  Rose  is  named  as  the  author 
of  the  words,  but  the  name  of  the  author  of  the  music  is 
unknown.  Mr.  Sonneck  quotes  the  following  remarks,  in 
German,  from  the  preface :  "  This  play  has  lain  longer  than 
Horace  demanded  in  the  desk  of  the  author,  who  wrote  it 
thirteen  years  ago  to  please  a  friend.  That  the  savage 
maiden  speaks  wittily  will  surprise  no  one  who  knows,  from 
Captain  Smith's  Travels,  that  wit  was  a  prominent  trait 
in  the  character  of  the  women  of  Virginia."  I  have  read 
enough  about  Pocahontas  to  know  that  she  was  capable  of 
affection,  pathos,  and  melancholy,  but  as  a  representative  of 
the  witty  women  of  Virginia  she  strikes  me  as  a  novelty. 

Here  are  some  notes  on  operas  the  librettos  of  which 
were  reprinted  in  America  on  the  occasion  of  their  perform- 
ances here : 

'  The  Dead  Alive,  or  The  Double  Funeral.'     A  comic 
opera  in  two  acts,  with  additions  and  alterations,  as  per- 


190  ENGLISH  OPERAS  IN  AMERICA 

formed  by  the  old  American  Company  in  New  York,  with 
universal  applause.  By  John  O'Keefe.  .  .  .  With  an  ac- 
count of  the  author.  New  York,  printed  by  Dodge,  Allen 
&  Campbell,  1789."  This  is  a  reprint  of  the  libretto  of  an 
opera  for  which  Samuel  Arnold  wrote  the  music,  which 
was  originally  produced  at  the  Haymarket,  London,  on  Sep- 
tember 24,  1789.  The  performance  in  the  United  States 
before  the  end  of  the  year  shows  how  close  were  the  ties 
between  the  London  and  American  theaters  at  the  time. 

" '  The  Deserter/  a  comic  opera  in  two  acts  at .  the 
Theatre,  New  York,  with  universal  applause.  By  Mr.  C. 
Dibdin.  New  York,  Samuel  Campbell,  1787."  This  was  an 
English  version  of  Monsigny's  "  Le  Deserteur,"  which  had 
its  first  American  representation  on  June  8,  1787.  In  Lon- 
don Monsigny's  authorship  of  the  music  was  recorded  and 
it  was  noted  that  there  was  additional  music  by  Philidor 
and  Dibdin.  New  Yorkers  were  left  to  imagine  that  all  the 
music  came  from  Dibdin's  brain. 

" '  The  Lord  of  the  Manor,'  a  comic  opera  in  three  acts, 
as  performed  with  universal  applause  by  the  American 
Company.  Philadelphia,  H.  Taylor,  1791."  The  date  of 
the  first  American  performance  of  this  opera  has  not  been 
discovered. 

"  '  Love  in  a  Village,'  a  comic  opera  written  by  Mr.  Bick- 
erstaff,  as  performed  at  the  New  Theatre  in  Philadelphia." 
This  opera,  a  great  favorite  in  its  day,  was  a  pasticcio,  the 
music  being  drawn  from  a  dozen  composers,  among  them 
Arne,  Boyce,  Carey,  Galuppi,  Geminiani,  Giardini,  Handel, 
and  Larry  Grogan.  "  Who  in  the  name  of  St.  Patrick  was 
Larry  Grogan?"  asks  Mr.  Sonneck. 

A  taboo  rested  on  the  drama  and  opera,  then  more  closely 
connected  than  they  are  now,  in  Boston  for  a  long  time 
after  these  forms  of  entertainment  were  popular  in  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Charlestown,  Baltimore,  and  other 
places,  but  even  Boston  is  represented  among  these  reprints 
of  foreign  librettos,  as  we  note  from  "  The  Spoil'd  Child. 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  OPERA  igi 

A  farce  in  two  acts,  as  performed  at  the  Theatre  in  Bos- 
ton. First  American  edition.  Boston,  Thomas  Hall,  1796." 
Bickerstaff  was  the  author  of  this  book,  and  the  play  had 
been  performed  in  Baltimore. 

The  most  interesting  records  in  Mr.  Sonneck's  catalogue 
for  the  students  of  American  opera  are  those  giving  in- 
formation about  the  works  which  were  written  and  com- 
posed in  America  prior  to  the  nineteenth  century.  The  list 
is  not  long  and  might  be  extended  by  appeal  to  private  col- 
lections ;  but  I  am  confined  to  the  Congressional  catalogue. 
Here  is  the  title  of  what  Mr.  Sonneck  assures  us  was  the 
first  American  opera,  "  The  Disappointment ;  or,  The  Force 
of  Credulity."  A  new  American  comic  opera,  of  two  acts. 
By  Andrew  Barton,  Esq.  New  York,  printed  in  the  year 
1767."  Concerning  this  opera  Mr.  Sonneck  says :  "  This 
first  American  ballad  opera  with  eighteen  airs  indicated  by 
title  (Air  IV,  'Yankee  Doodle'),  was  to  have  been  first 
performed  by  the  American  Company  at  Philadelphia  on 
April  20,  1767,  but  it  was  withdrawn,  '  personal  reflections ' 
rendering  it  '  unfit  for  the  stage.'  "  Another  opera  with  a 
text  written  by  an  American  was  "  The  Reconciliation ;  or, 
The  Triumph  of  Nature,"  a  comic  opera  in  two  acts  by 
Peter  Markoe,  published  in  Philadelphia  in  1790.  This  was 
a  ballad  opera  based  on  a  German  piece  entitled  "  Erastus." 
The  dedication  reads:  "  To  His  Excellency,  Thomas  Miflin, 
Esq.,  President  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania;  and  to  the 
Honorable  Thomas  M'Kean,  Chief  Justice  of  the  said 
State ;  this  comic  opera  approved  by  +hem  in  their  official 
capacity  according  to  law ;  but  withdrawn  from  the  man- 
agers of  the  theatre  after  it  had  remained  in  their  hands 
more  than  four  months,  is  ...  inscribed.  Evidently  authors 
and  managers  had  the  same  troubles  135  years  ago  as  now. 
A  woman  also  shows  up  among  these  pioneer  American 
librettists,  one  who,  if  she  were  alive  today,  would  probably 
be  found  parading  in  front  of  the  White  House  in  Wash- 
ington in  an  effort  to  bring  feminine  pressure  to  bear  on  the 


I5»  A  PIONEER  WOMAN  LIBRETTIST 

President  in  one  of  the  few  ways  distasteful  to  man.  Her 
opera  has  a  political  theme :  " '  Slaves  in  Algiers ;  or,  A 
Struggle  for  Freedom.'  A  play  interspersed  with  songs,  in 
three  acts,  by  Mrs.  Rowson.  As  performed  at  the  New 
Theatres  in  Philadelphia  and  Baltimore.  Printed  for  the 
author,  1794."  Mrs.  Rowson  was  the  wife  of  the  leader  of 
a  regimental  band  in  England,  say  the  annotators  of  John 
Bernard's  "Retrospections  of  America,"  1797-181  *:  "He 
and  his  wife  came  to  America  with  Wignell  in  1793.  He 
was  eclipsed  by  Mrs.  Rowson,  the  author  of  '  Charlotte 
Temple,  A  Tale  of  Truth,'  of  a  comedy  called  '  Americans 
in  England,'  and  other  works,  and  an  actress  of  average 
ability."  The  lady's  musical  play  was  first  performed  at 
the  New  Theater  in  Philadelphia  on  December  29,  1794. 
The  music  was  composed  by  Alexander  Reinagle,  one  of  a 
number  of  English  musicians  who  were  extremely  influen- 
tial in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  in  the  last  years  of  the 
eighteenth  and  first  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  before 
the  German  invasion  had  set  in.  He  came  of  a  family  of 
musicians,  and  his  nephew,  Alexander  Robert  Reinagle, 
composed  the  psalm-tune  known  in  the  hymnals  as  "  St. 
Peter's."  Finally  I  reach  "  '  Darby's  Return.'  A  comic 
sketch,  as  performed  at  the  Theatre  in  this  City  (New 
York)  with  universal  applause."  This  opera  was  written 
by  William  Dunlap  in  1789  and  produced  in  November  of 
that  year. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  FIRST  SEASON  UNDER  MR.  GATTI- 
CASAZZA  ALONE 

OPERA  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN  IN  1910-11— REDUCTION  OF  FORCES 
—FAILURE  OF  AN  AFFILIATION  WITH  CHICAGO  AND  BOSTON 
—ILLNESS  OF  SIGNOR  CARUSO— DEATH  OF  M.  GILIBERT— 
CLUCK'S  "ARMIDE"— THE  BALLETS  OF  LULLY  AND  GLUCK— 
ROUSSEAU'S  SARCASM— VISITS  OF  PUCCINI  AND  HUMPER- 
DINCK— PRODUCTION  OF  THEIR  NEW  OPERAS— "  LA  FAN- 
CIULLA  DEL  WEST  "—HOW  MR.  BELASCO  TRAINED  SINGERS 
TO  ACT— A  FAILURE  AND  ITS  CAUSE—"  KONIGSKINDER  "—A 
"SUFFRAGETTE"  OPERA— "  ARIANE  ET  BARBE-BLEUE  "— HOW 
A  SATIRE  WAS  CONSTRUED  AS  A  PLEA  FOR  WOMAN'S  SUF- 
FRAGE 

THE  twenty-sixth  season  of  opera  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House,  which  began  on  November  14,  1910,  and 
ended  on  April  15,  1911,  was  the  first  in  which  Signer  Gatti 
was  sole  manager  de  jure  as  well  as  de  facto,  and  also  the 
first  in  which  he  was  untrammeled  by  the  rivalry  of  Mr. 
Hammerstein  and  unvexed  by  unseemly  scandal.  The  fever 
of  expansion  had  been  allayed  and  a  becoming  modesty 
characterized  the  announcements  in  the  prospectus.  The 
performances  at  the  New  Theater  and  the  Baltimore  enter- 
prise were  abandoned  and  the  Philadelphia  representations 
limited  to  eight,  the  needs  of  that  city  in  the  latter  half  of 
the  season  being  supplied  by  the  company  with  an  invertible 
title  (Chicago-Philadelphia  in  the  West  and  Philadelphia- 
Chicago  in  the  East).  The  forces  were  therefore  reduced 
fully  one-half.  A  few  singers  were  added  to  the  local  roster 
and  a  promise  of  significant  help  held  out  by  affiliation  with 
the  Chicago  and  Boston  organizations.  The  newcomers  in 
the  Metropolitan  list  whose  names  proved  worthy  of  record 
were  four  men:  Dimitri  Smirnoff,  tenor;  Leon  Rothier, 

193 


194  MR.  GATTI  AS  SOLE  MANAGER 

William  Hinshaw,  and  Basil  Ruysdael,  basses.  It  was  said 
that  of  the  Chicago  company  Nellie  Melba,  John  McCor- 
mack,  and  Maurice  Renaud  would  occasionally  be  drawn 
into  the  performances  of  the  Metropolitan  company,  and 
of  the  Boston  organization  Lydia  Lipkowska,  Carmen  Melis, 
Alice  Nielsen,  sopranos;  Florencio  Constantino,  tenor,  and 
George  Baklanoff,  barytone.  The  value  of  the  affiliation 
proved  to  be  negligible.  Mme.  Melba  sang  once  in  "  Travi- 
ata  "  at  a  special  performance,  and  once  in  "  Rigoletto  "  in 
the  subscription ;  then  she  was  announced  as  ill  and  betook 
herself  to  England.  Mile,  or  Mme.  Lipkowska  sang  a  few 
times,  as  did  also  Signer  Constantino,  but  the  public  seemed 
indifferent  to  the  performances,  which  were  devoted  to  old 
operas  by  Verdi.  Mme.  Melis,  who  had  made  an  agreeable 
impression  at  the  Manhattan  Opera  House  in  the  previous 
season  Miss  Nielsen,  and  M.  Baklanoff  (a  fine  artist) 
were  not  heard,  and  M.  Renaud,  "  the  most  finished  and 
versatile  of  French  artists  whom  the  foresight  of  Maurice 
Grau  had  retained  for  the  Metropolitan,  but  whose  contract 
Mr.  Conried  canceled  at  the  cost  of  a  penalty,"*  and  who  had 
been  one  of  Mr.  Hammerstein's  strongest  props  during  the 
years  of  rivalry  with  the  Metropolitan,  was  heard  only  in 
one  performance  with  Mme.  Melba  and  in  a  few  of  those 
of  the  Chicago  company. 

The  season  was  financially  profitable,  though  Signer  Gatti 
had  to  contend  with  a  deal  of  ill-luck.  Signor  Caruso  was 
seized  with  an  affection  of  the  throat  and  sang  for  the  last 
time  in  the  season  on  February  6,  1911.  The  fact  was 
woeful  to  the  subscribers,  grievously  disappointing  to  the 
public,  and  seemed  full  of  evil  portent  for  the  future  of  the 
institution;  but  nature's  law  of  compensation  remained 
operative,  and  the  public  was  taught  a  better  appreciation 
of  operas  which  were  not  in  Signor  Caruso's  repertory  than 
it  would  have  received  had  the  popular  idol  remained  more 
persistently  in  the  public  eye  and  ear.  German  opera,  which 

*"  Chapters  of  Opera,"  p.  365. 


AN  UNQUESTIONING  BODY  OF  SUBSCRIBERS    195 

seemed  to  be  threatened  by  the  enforced  retirement  of  Mr. 
Dippel  in  the  preceding  season,  came  into  particular  promi- 
nence because  of  the  enforced  retirement  of  Signer  Caruso 
in  this.  By  a  peculiarly  happy  dispensation  Miss  Farrar, 
the  most  popular  of  the  company's  singers  after  Signor  Ca- 
ruso, was  dowered  with  an  opera  ("  Konigskinder  ")  which 
made  a  strong  appeal  to  the  most  enthusiastic  and  faithful 
element  among  the  city's  music-lovers,  and  what  happened 
after  February  6  may  be  set  down  as  a  sort  of  educational 
campaign,  the  effects  of  which  were  garnered  in  later  years 
when  it  was  found  that  operas  could  succeed  without  the 
great  singer's  participation  and  fail  in  spite  of  his  help.  The 
most  striking  instance  of  the  latter  sort  is  connected  with 
the  opera  which  Signor  Gatti  had  selected  to  be  the  culmi- 
nation of  the  season's  glory — Puccini's  "  Fanciulla  del 
West."  More  about  this  in  due  time. 

It  has  been  my  custom  in  making  a  retrospect  of  a  season 
to  take  a  glance  at  the  promises  held  out  in  the  prospectus. 
This,  of  course,  is  merely  a  matter  of  habit.  Since  opera 
became  the  greatest  of  all  social  fads  there  has  been  no  real 
need  of  managerial  promises  beyond  the  one  that  a  season 
of  opera  will  be  given.  The  subscriptions  for  the  new  year 
begin  to  come  in  before  the  end  of  the  old.  No  questions 
are  asked  about  the  repertory,  few  about  the  singers.  The 
comparison  between  promise  and  fulfilment,  however,  is 
interesting  and  becomes  valuable  when,  as  in  the  present  in- 
stance, it  discloses  a  nicer  balance  than  it  had  been  possible 
for  a  reviewer  to  record  for  a  long  term  of  years.  When 
the  public  was  invited  to  subscribe  for  the  season  in  the 
summer,  performances  were  promised  in  French,  German, 
Italian,  and  English.  The  principle  that  all  works  should 
be  sung  in  the  language  to  which  they  were  native  was  to 
be  upheld.  There  had  been  talk  of  performances  in  the  ver- 
nacular of  two  operas  which  seemed  amenable  to  transla- 
tion: Goldmark's  "  Heimchen  am  Heerd  "  (which  is  Ger- 
man, and  pretty  German,  for  "  The  Cricket  on  the  Hearth  ") 


ig6  AN  AMERICAN  OPERA  WITHDRAWN 

and  Humperdinck's  "  Konigskinder  "  ;  but  the  director  put 
a  quietus  on  it  immediately  after  his  return  from  Europe. 
The  plan  was  impracticable  in  the  case  of  the  latter  opera 
at  least  because  there  would  be  no  time  to  prepare  an  Eng- 
lish version  before  a  date  which  had  to  be  considered  in 
order  to  enable  him  to  insure  the  privilege  of  a  "  world 
premiere."  Nevertheless  he  announced  an  opera,  "  Twi- 
light," by  Arthur  Nevin,  American  in  subject,  language  and 
authorship,  in  mid-season,  and  withdrew  it  about  the  time 
when  the  public  had  been  told  to  expect  its  performance.  It 
was  plain  to  all  close  observers  that  Signor  Gatti  had  not 
been  permitted  to  exercise  the  discretion  which  ought  to 
have  been  vested  solely  in  him  in  announcing  that  the  new 
opera  would  be  performed,  and  also  that  he  felt  no  heart- 
burnings when  he  proclaimed  later  that  its  manuscript  ma- 
terial was  of  a  kind  that  made  the  promised  production 
impossible. 

Meanwhile  a  singular  combination  of  circumstances  led 
to  a  fulfilment  of  the  prospectus  in  regard  to  a  vernacular 
performance.  Mr.  Dippel,  who  had  undertaken  the  manage- 
ment of  the  Chicago  Opera  Company,  the  activities  of  which 
were  chiefly  given  to  French  opera,  had  carried  with  him 
from  New  York  a  desire  to  give  some  representations  in 
English.  He  was  encouraged  in  this  desire  by  Mr.  Clar- 
ence Mackay  and  Mr.  Otto  H.  Kahn;  but  the  Chicago 
season  was  not  long  enough  to  enable  him  to  bring  it  to 
fruition.  As  Mr.  Hammerstein's  quasi-successor,  Mr.  Dippel, 
had  come  into  possession  of  the  score  of  an  American  opera, 
"  Natoma,"  of  which  the  authors  were  Joseph  Redding  and 
Victor  Herbert.  The  opera  had  been  offered  to  Signor 
Gatti  and  the  music  of  the  second  act  given  a  practical  trial 
on  the  stage  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House.  The  di- 
rector did  not  think  it  worth  producing,  and  with  his  judg- 
ment I  find  myself  in  full  accord.  Mr.  Dippel,  however, 
had  begun  to  talk  about  opera  in  the  vernacular  in  Chicago ; 
Mr.  Ricordi  had  joined  in  the  widespread  chorus,  and  with 


CHARLES  GILIBERT 


VISITS  OF  PUCCINI  AND  HUMPERDINCK  197 

a  display  of  energy  quite  without  example  in  our  history, 
Mr.  Dippel,  when  he  brought  the  Chicago  company  to 
Philadelphia,  produced  Mr.  Herbert's  work  first  there  and 
afterward  in  New  York.  Next,  to  give  emphasis  to  his 
patriotic  enterprise,  he  changed  his  plans  for  a  series  of 
performances  in  New  York,  and  devoted  three  out  of  ten 
representations  to  the  new  opera,  though  he  found  it  neces- 
sary at  the  last  performance  to  associate  a  foreign  curtain- 
raiser  with  it. 

Interesting  incidents,  though  they  were  made  to  assume 
a  commercial  rather  than  an  artistic  character,  were  the 
visits  of  two  composers  who  came  to  supervise  or  witness 
the  first  production  of  their  latest  compositions,  which  were 
among  the  novelties  of  the  season.  Signer  Puccini,  who 
had  visited  New  York  in  1907,  when  his  old  opera,  "  Manon 
Lescaut,"  had  its  first  performance  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House,  came  to  attend  the  premiere  of  "  La  Fan- 
ciulla  del  West,"  and  Herr  Humperdinck  to  give  eclat  to  that 
of  "  Konigskinder,"  two  operas  which  opened  their  eyes  on 
the  lamps  of  the  stage  at  the  Metropolitan.  For  the  Italian 
composer  the  management  arranged  a  reception  in  the  foyer 
of  the  opera  house  and  for  his  opera  two  special  perform- 
ances at  double  prices.  The  German  opera  was  produced 
in  regular  course.  Despite  all  attempts  to  make  a  new  opera 
by  the  most  popular  operatic  writer  alive  a  sensational  oc- 
currence, Puccini's  opera  was  an  artistic  failure,  while  the 
German  opera  turned  out  to  be  the  most  popular  production 
of  the  season.  "  Konigskinder  "  also  helped  its  predecessor, 
"  Hansel  und  Gretel,"  to  achieve  wider  recognition,  and  it 
was  admitted  to  the  aristocratic  company  of  the  operas  in 
the  subscription  list  after  having  been  reserved  for  extra 
holiday  and  popular  Saturday  night  performances  ever 
since  it  had  gotten  into  the  Metropolitan  list  in  1905,  when 
the  composer  had  been  a  guest  of  Mr.  Conried  and  his  com- 
pany. The  presence  of  the  Russian  dancers  was  a  fortunate 
incident  at  the  waning  of  the  season,  when  Signor  Caruso's 


igS  DEATH  OF  CHARLES  GILIBERT 

illness  seemed  to  threaten  disaster.  Mme.  Pavlova  and  her 
companion,  M.  Mordkin,  had  disclosed  themselves  to  their 
admirers  before  the  season  opened,  and,  though  they  were 
supported  by  a  very  mediocre  company  of  dancers,  they 
were  enthusiastically  greeted  at  the  performances  in  which 
they  took  part  until  the  first  week  of  January.  Then  they 
departed,  but  came  back  very  opportunely  for  the  second 
fortnight  of  March.  A  distressing  occurrence  was  the  death 
of  Charles  Gilibert  on  October  n,  1910,  three  days  after 
his  arrival  from  London  to  join  Signor  Gatti's  forces.  M. 
Gilibert  had  been  a  member  of  Mr.  Hammerstein's  com- 
pany during  the  four  years  of  that  impresario's  consulate, 
but  before  that  time  had  been  associated  with  the  Metro- 
politan company,  having  been  brought  to  America  by  Mr. 
Grau.  He  made  his  New  York  debut  on  December  18,  1900, 
in  Gounod's  "  Romeo  et  Juliette."  He  was  born  in  Paris 
in  1866 ;  studied  at  the  Conservatoire,  where  he  carried  off 
prizes  in  singing;  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  opera  at 
the  Theatre  de  la  Monnaie  in  Brussels ;  was  a  member  of 
the  company  at  that  theater  for  ten  years  before  being  en- 
gaged by  Mr.  Grau.  He  died  of  an  abscess  of  the  brain. 
Not  only  a  most  admirable  dramatic  artist,  he  was  one  of 
the  most  finished  concert  singers  of  his  time,  perfect  in 
vocalization  and  diction  and  in  all  things  sympathetic  and 
engaging.  So  great  was  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held 
that  his  fellow-artists  at  the  Metropolitan  gave  a  concert 
on  January  25,  1911,  as  a  memorial  to  him  and  for  the 
benefit  of  his  family,  which  yielded  the  sum  of  $16,400,  of 
which  sum  $1,000  was  donated  to  the  widow  of  Galetti- 
Gianoli,  a  buffo-basso  of  the  company  who  had  died  in  Lon- 
don in  the  preceding  summer.  Among  M.  Gilibert's  finest 
impersonations  were  those  of  Masetto  in  "  Don  Giovanni," 
Dancairo  in  "  Carmen,"  Dr.  Bartolo  in  "  II  Barbiere,"  the 
Father  in  "  Louise,"  the  Sergeant  in  "  La  Fille  du  Regi- 
ment," the  Sacristan  in  "  Tosca,"  and  Schaunard  in  "  La 
Boheme." 


The  season  was  opened  with  a  novelty — an  extraordinary 
proceeding  which  was  made  more  extraordinary  by  the  fact 
that  the  novelty  was  an  opera  of  which  the  music  was  133 
years  old  and  the  book  90  years  older.  The  opera  was 
Gluck's  "  Armide,"  which  was  composed  in  1777,  but  whose 
book  was  written  by  Quinault  for  Lully  in  1686.  The  re- 
vival of  interest  in  "  Orfeo  "  by  the  performances  of  the 
preceding  season,  coupled  with  the  choice  of  "  Armide  "  as 
the  first  opera  of  the  present,  invited  to  curious  specula- 
tions. Until  "  Orfeo  "  was  resurrected  the  oldest  opera  in 
the  local  list  was  Mozart's  "  Nozze  di  Figaro,"  which  had 
then  reached  the  ripe  age  of  125  years.  "  Orfeo "  was 
nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  older.  Why  had  Signor  Gat- 
ti's  choice  fallen  on  "  Armide  "  ?  Was  it  in  obedience  to  a 
longing  which  the  works  of  modern  composers  had  left  un- 
satisfied ?  Were  inherited  tastes  of  which  we  had  long  been 
unconscious,  and  which  were  still  undefined,  making  them- 
selves felt  in  obedience  to  a  law  of  progress  which  we  had 
never  troubled  ourselves  to  understand?  Orchestral  com- 
posers were  storming  the  citadel  of  heaven  with  serried 
ranks  of  pipers,  blowers  and  drummers,  making  pompous 
proclamation  of  small  thoughts,  yet  archaic  instruments 
were  coming  to  the  fore  and  archaic  composers  coming 
again  into  their  rights.  Affectation  was  everywhere  visible 
in  musical  culture,  yet  we  were  turning  more  and  more  to 
simplicity  and  finding  it  satisfying  and  lovable.  There  was 
something  gratifying  in  the  contemplation  of  these  facts, 
but  were  they  also  an  affectation?  Were  we  again  playing 
at  shepherds  and  shepherdesses?  An  answer  was  not  at 
hand.  So  far  as  the  phenomenon  which  we  were  observing 
was  concerned,  it  was  easier  to  conceive  it  as  the  outcome 
of  a  number  and  variety  of  other  motives  and  purposes. 

For  one  thing,  "  Armide  "  invites  an  opulent  investiture. 
The  history  of  opera  differs  greatly  from  that  of  the  spoken 
drama.  As  an  art-form  it  has  appealed  to  the  senses  rather 
than  to  the  intellect  and  emotions  from  the  beginning.  The 


200      COSTLY  DECORATIONS  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME 

farther  one  goes  back  into  the  records  the  more  amazing 
are  the  stories  of  the  scenic  splendors.  French  opera  had 
its  beginning  in  an  entertainment  which  mingled  spectacle, 
dance,  pantomime,  and  music.  Henri  III  produced  "  Circe, 
ou  le  Ballet  Comique  de  la  Reine,"  by  the  Piedmontese  fid- 
dler Baltazarini,  at  the  Palais  du  Petit  Bourbon  in  October, 
1581,  in  honor  of  the  marriage  of  the  queen's  sister.  The 
performance,  which  began  at  10  o'clock  in  the  evening, 
lasted  till  3:30  the  next  morning,  and  cost  1,200,000  ecus — 
whether  gold  or  silver  is  not  stated  in  the  accounts.  If  they 
were  ecus  of  silver,  the  sum  was  the  equivalent  of  $720,000 ; 
if  of  gold,  of  $1,200,000.  Even  in  Mannheim  it  was  nothing 
unusual  to  spend  $20,000  on  the  mounting  of  a  single  opera 
at  about  the  period  which  saw  the  original  production  of 
"  Armide  "  in  Paris.  There  was  evidence  in  Signer  Tos- 
canini's  reverential  attitude  toward  the  music  of  Gluck's 
opera  that  a  large  impulse  in  his  case  was  admiration  and 
love  for  the  old  work.  Perhaps  this  was  paired  in  Signor 
Gatti's  mind  with  a  hope  that  a  brilliant  show  would  add  to 
the  luster  of  his  administration.  I  can  easily  imagine  that 
the  scenery,  costumes,  and  other  paraphernalia  which  the 
manager  provided  for  "  Armide  "  cost  the  modern  equiva- 
lent of  the  Mannheim  operas  which  Dr.  Burney  tells  about, 
and  it  may  have  excelled  them  all  in  beauty  and  even  sur- 
passed the  original  production  in  Paris.  It  had  an  excel- 
lent modern  model,  and  while  engaged  in  this  fanciful  specu- 
lation I  might  go  further  and  say,  too,  that  in  some  particu- 
lars I  imagine  that  it  was  sung  better  than  when  Gluck 
superintended  its  production  and  told  Marie  Antoinette  how 
supremely  admirable  his  opera  was  going  to  be.  The  French 
singers  were  not  remarkable  at  the  Academic  in  Gluck's 
day,  and,  indeed,  have  never  been  remarkable  for  beauty  of 
voice,  except  in  the  periods  of  Italian  domination.  In  some 
respects,  however,  it  is  to  be  imagined  that  the  eighteenth- 
century  representations  surpassed  that  of  the  twentieth.  It 
can  safely  be  assumed  that  there  was  greater  consistency 


THE  BALLET  IN  FRENCH  OPERA        201 

and  unity  of  style  in  the  performance — as  there  still  is  at 
the  Grand  Opera  in  spite  of  its  decadence — a  larger  effec- 
tiveness in  the  dramatic  declamation — that  is,  a  better  dic- 
tion— and  much  more  meaning  and  charm  in  the  ballet.  No 
doubt  the  prevalent  exhibition  of  interest  in  dancing  had 
something  to  do  with  the  production  of  Gluck's  opera,  which 
is  as  full  of  dancing  as  were  the  operas  which  excited  the 
ridicule  of  Rousseau.  Rousseau  loved  Quinault,  had  a  sin- 
cere admiration  for  Gluck,  and  despised  French  singing. 
He  looked  with  forgiving  eyes  on  the  dancing  diversions  in 
Quinault's  operas,  but  thought  the  ballet  of  his  successors 
absurd.  "  In  every  act  the  action  is  generally  interrupted 
at  the  most  interesting  moment  by  a  dance  given  to  the 
actors,  who  are  seated,  while  the  public  stands  up  to  look 
on.  It  thus  happens  that  the  dramatis  persona  are  abso- 
lutely forgotten.  The  way  in  which  these  fetes  are  brought 
about  is  very  simple.  Is  the  prince  joyous?  His  courtiers 
participate  in  his  joy  and  dance.  Is  he  sad?  He  must  be 
cheered  up,  and  they  dance  again.  .  .  .  Priests  dance,  soldiers 
dance,  gods  dance,  devils  dance ;  there  is  dancing  even  at 
interments — dancing  apropos  of  everything."  In  the  pre- 
ceding season  the  patrons  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House 
had  waxed  so  enthusiastic  over  the  dancing  of  Mme.  Pav- 
lova and  Mr.  Mordkin,  whose  dancing  was  wholly  extra- 
neous to  the  play,  that  it  would  not  be  surprising  if  Mr. 
Gatti  had  concluded  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  a  revival  of 
some  of  the  old  operas  in  which  the  ballet  took  part  in  the 
action,  even  though  the  part  was  as  little  essential  as  Rous- 
seau's description  implies.  But  I  fancy  that  there  was  even 
a  greater  difference  between  the  terpsichorean  compositions 
of  the  Vestris  family,  as  well  as  their  performance,  and 
those  of  the  Metropolitan  ballet-master  and  his  corps  than 
there  was  between  the  French  of  the  singers. 

So  far,  then,  as  it  was  the  hope  of  creating  an  interest  in 
the  old  opera  by  its  dancing  diversion  which  led  to  the  tardy 
performance  of  "  Armide,"  it  is  to  be  feared  that  Mr.  Gatti 


202  GLUCK'S  "  ARMIDE  " 

was  disappointed.  Such  aimless  caperings  as  were  indulged 
in  by  the  ballet-contingent  could  charm  no  cultured  person ; 
and  before  we  can  have  a  classic  ballet  of  the  kind  which 
in  Gluck's  day  had  so  much  potency  that  the  will  of  Vestris 
was  paramount  to  that  of  Gluck,  we  must  have  ballet- 
masters  educated  in  the  classic  traditions  and  a  corps  of 
dancers  trained  in  graceful  and  significant  pantomime.  A 
larger  justification  for  the  opera  was  found  in  its  opportuni- 
ties for  scenic  attire,  and  here  the  introduction  of  elements 
which  had  become  familiar  through  more  modern  works 
helped  in  the  establishment  of  a  sympathetic  attitude  be- 
tween the  old  opera  and  the  modern  spectators.  "  Armide  " 
is  a  romantic  opera.  Chivalry  and  supernaturalism  play  a 
large  part  in  it,  and  it  was  no  doubt  agreeable  to  find  how 
devices  in  modern  stage-mechanism  could  be  employed  to 
make  it  delectable  to  modern  taste.  The  enchanted  gardens 
of  the  Damascan  sorceress  recalled  memories  of  Klingsor's 
magic  realms ;  the  naiads  who  moved  gracefully  about  in 
the  placid  waters  of  the  brook  recalled  memories  of  Wag- 
ner's Rhine-nixies;  the  zephyrs  which  carried  off  Rinaldo 
and  his  charmer  on  their  couch  of  roses  would  never  have 
been  had  not  M.  Gounsbourg  made  an  opera  out  of  Ber- 
lioz's "  Damnation  de  Faust "  so  that  the  sylphs  might  float 
through  the  dreams  of  Faust  sleeping  on  the  banks  of  the 
Elbe.  That  Armide  should  suggest  Venus  and  Kundry  was 
inevitable,  for  they  are  of  a  tribe,  and  though  there  came  a 
temptation  to  smile  at  the  ingenuousness  of  poet  and  com- 
poser in  having  an  exorcism  of  one  Kundry  follow  hard  on 
the  heels  of  another  in  the  fourth  act,  these  things  were  not 
made  a  bit  incongruous  by  the  archaism  of  the  music.  On 
the  contrary,  a  greater  charm  went  out  from  the  music  of 
the  scenes  of  enchantment  than  from  the  accents  which 
ought  to  have  stirred  the  emotions  and  imaginations  of  the 
audience  in  the  scenes  of  tragic  import — the  alternating 
tempests  of  love  and  hate  which  tore  the  heart  of  the  play's 
heroine.  Here  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  music  of  the 


CARUSO  AS  RENAUD  203 

opera  sounded  less  moving  than  that  of  "  Orfeo  "  or  "  Al- 
ceste."  There  is  a  superb  chorus  at  the  close  of  the  first  act 
of  "  Armide,"  but  it  pales  its  fires  in  the  presence  of  the 
two  lyric  dramas  in  which  Gluck  celebrated  the  passion  of 
married  lovers.  So  there  is  strong  and  dramatic  utterance 
in  the  scene  beginning  "  Enfin  il  est  dans  ma  puissance,"  in 
which  Armide  empties  her  heart  of  hatred  in  the  presence 
of  the  sleeping  crusader,  but  it  scarcely  reaches  the  height 
of  Alcest's  invocation  of  the  Stygian  divinities.  As  for 
the  rest,  there  is  far  too  much  song  and  spectacle  in  propor- 
tion to  its  dramatic  action. 

If  "  Armide  "  was  incorporated  in  the  local  list  to  widen 
the  opportunities  of  Signor  Caruso,  the  purpose  was  accom- 
plished to  the  extent  of  one-half.  Its  music  proved  to  be  a 
splendid  vehicle  for  the  singer's  matchless  voice,  and  he  paid 
it  honor  due  by  singing  it  in  a  noble  and  dignified  manner 
to  the  complete  forgetting  of  the  exaggerated  pathos  which 
he  had  so  long  affected  in  the  operas  which  had  brought 
him  his  greatest  popularity  and  worked  the  greatest  harm 
to  his  voice.  But  the  hero  of  Tasso's  "  Gerusalemme 
liberta  "  was  a  sorry  figure  as  Signor  Caruso  embodied  him 
to  the  eye.  The  tenor  had  grown  stout  in  figure  and  almost 
ludicrously  awkward  in  movement.  When  he  disposed  him- 
self to  sleep  in  the  enchanted  garden  it  was  impossible  not 
to  feel  an  apprehension  that  the  smile  innumerous  spread 
over  the  audience  might  become  audible.  It  was  really  a 
painful  moment,  and  that  the  desire  to  laugh  was  suppressed 
was  a  higher  tribute  to  the  singer  than  an  outburst  of  ap- 
plause at  the  end  of  his  entrancing  song  would  have  been. 
Mme.  Fremstad  was  happier  than  her  companion  in  every 
respect.  She  looked,  sang,  and  acted  her  part  convincingly 
and  triumphantly.  It  was  she  who  dominated  the  work  so 
far  as  the  too  loquacious  Quinault,  who  had  to  spread  a 
paucity  of  dramatic  action  over  five  acts  in  order  to  con- 
form to  the  laws  of  the  Academic,  would  permit  her  to  do 
so.  She  was  much  hampered  by  her  female  companions 


204  A  NEW  OPERA  BY  PUCCINI 

who  would  be  singing  and  her  gorgeous  retinue  who  danced 
in  and  out  of  season ;  yet  some  of  those  companions  were 
able  coadjutors  and  deserved  well  at  the  hands  of  the  audi- 
ence. Especially  was  this  true  of  Alma  Gluck,  who,  as  she 
had  done  in  "  Orfeo,"  proved  herself  the  best  stylist  in  the 
company.  The  opera  was  produced  with  the  following  cast : 


Armide Olive  Fremstad 

Renaud   Enrico  Caruso 

Hidrauot  Pasquale  Amato 

La  Haine  Louise  Homer 

Sidonie  Leonora  Sparkes 

Phenice  Jeanne  Maubourg 

Lucinde Alma  Gluck 

Ubalde Dinh  Gilly 

Le  Chevalier  Danois Angelo  Bada 

Artemidore    Alfred   Reiss 

Aronte Andrea  Segurola 

Une  Naiade Marie  Rappold 

Un  Plaisir  Alma  Gluck 

Conductor,  Arturo  Toscanini 


On  December  10,  1910,  there  was  a  first  performance  on 
any  stage  of  a  new  Italian  opera  by  Puccini.  This  was  "  La 
Fanciulla  del  West,"  the  libretto  of  which  had  been  fabri- 
cated by  G.  Zangarini  and  C.  Civinni  out  of  Mr.  David 
Belasco's  melodrama,  "  The  Girl  of  the  Golden  West."  The 
management  had  put  its  finest  talent  at  the  service  of  the 
composer,  who  had  come  to  America  to  direct  the  produc- 
tion ;  Mr.  Belasco  had  taken  upon  himself  the  task  of  train- 
ing a  company  of  foreigners,  who  knew  as  little  about  the 
'Forty-niners  as  they  did  about  the  antediluvians,  how  to 
look  and  act  like  the  argonauts  of  California  and  their 
parasites;  Signer  Toscanini  threw  himself  devotedly  into 
the  interpretation  of  the  music,  and  all  that  could  possibly 
be  done  to  make  the  affair  a  brilliant  and  momentous  one 
in  operatic  history  was  done.  It  was  momentous,  but  not 
in  the  sense  expected  by  Signer  Gatti.  The  time  was  a  Sat- 


REASONS  FOR  SUCCESS  AND  FAILURE  205 

urday  night,  but  instead  of  the  popular  prices  which  ordi- 
narily prevailed  at  the  last  performance  of  each  week,  the 
prices  were  doubled.  There  was  a  fine  attendance,  but  not 
an  extraordinary  one.  The  performance  was  fine  also,  such 
an  one  as  there  is  no  risk  in  saying  the  opera  would  not  have 
received  at  any  other  opera  house  in  the  world,  for  nowhere 
else  would  the  factors  essential  to  a  presentation  of  the  char- 
acteristically American  play  been  brought  together.  The 
play  was  familiar  to  the  public,  and  Mr.  Belasco's  associa- 
tion with  Signor  Puccini  in  the  most  popular  of  the  latter's 
operas  whetted  the  natural  curiosity  in  a  work  which  was 
not  only  national  in  plot,  but  was  also  to  have  its  first  rep- 
resentation in  an  American  theater.  The  excellent  merits 
of  the  performance  had  recognition,  and  between  the  cur- 
tains the  singers,  the  composer,  Mr.  Belasco,  and  Signor 
Toscanini  were  repeatedly  called  out  and  vigorously  ap- 
plauded. After  the  opera  there  was  a  reception  for  Signor 
Puccini,  at  which  there  was  much  mutual  congratulation 
over  an  achievement  which  it  was  assumed  was  a  great 
thing  for  American  art.  While  I  am  writing  this  down, 
however,  I  am  also  recording  an  artistic  failure.  The  best 
evidence  of  this  failure  was  in  the  opera  itself,  though  the 
management  refused  to  acknowledge  the  fact  until  three 
years  later,  when,  without  there  having  been  any  diminution 
of  the  favor  in  which  the  composer's  other  operas  were  held, 
and  Signor  Caruso,  Mme.  Destinn,  and  other  popular  mem- 
bers of  the  company  were  still  in  his  service,  Signor  Gatti 
dropped  "  La  Fanciulla  del  West  "  from  the  active  list  of 
operas.  Meanwhile  operas  in  which  only  lesser  lights  shone 
became  the  permanent  admirations  of  the  public.  This  was 
in  a  way  a  rebuke  to  the  artistic  policy  of  the  administra- 
tion. A  rebuke  to  its  business  policy  followed  hard  on  the 
heels  of  its  first  performance.  Signor  Gatti  announced 
another  representation  for  the  following  Saturday  evening, 
also  at  advanced  prices  of  admission.  He  could  not  fill  the 
house  a  second  time,  whereupon  the  opera  took  its  place  in 


206        THE  HISTORY  OF  "  MADAMA  BUTTERFLY  " 

the  regular  subscription  repertory  and  there  remained  until 
the  end  of  the  season  1913-14,  after  which  it  was  heard  no 
more.  For  the  next  novelty,  which  was  Humperdinck's 
"  Konigskinder,"  also  an  opera  which  New  York  was  to  see 
and  hear  before  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  to  which  the  com- 
poser's presence  was  to  give  eclat,  there  had  been  less  tumult 
of  preparation,  less  clanging  of  the  cymbals  of  reclame,  but 
a  different  public,  and  the  opera  was  placed  in  the  subscrip- 
tion list  at  normal  prices  at  the  outset.  Nevertheless,  it  had 
ii  performances  in  its  first  season  to  9  of  "  La  Fanciulla," 
and  before  it  fell  out  of  the  list  in  1913-14  had  30,  as  against 
22  of  its  more  favored  Italian  rival. 

The  history  of  "  La  Fanciulla  del  West  "  has  a  prelude  in 
that  of  "  Madama  Butterfly,"  which  I  have  related  with 
considerable  detail  in  my  "  Second  Book  of  Operas."  *  In 
the  spring  of  the  year  1900,  at  the  Herald  Square  Theater 
in  New  York,  Mr.  Belasco  produced  what  proved  to  be  a 
futile  farce  entitled  "  Naughty  Anthony,"  in  which  Miss 
Blanche  Bates  played  the  principal  part.  Threatened  with 
failure,  he  took  up  Mr.  John  Luther  Long's  story,  "  Madame 
Butterfly "  (whose  theme  the  American  author  had  bor- 
rowed from  Pierre  Loti's  "Madame  Chrysantheme  "),  and 
in  a  desperate  hurry  constructed  a  play  out  of  it.  With  its 
pictures  and  pathos,  especially  its  scene  of  all-night  vigil, 
Miss  Bates  took  so  strong  a  hold  on  the  playgoers  of  the 
town  that  Mr.  Belasco's  season  was  saved.  The  play  was 
carried  to  London,  and  there  Mr.  Francis  Nielson,  stage- 
manager  at  Covent  Garden  at  the  time,  recognized  its  oper- 
atic possibilities  and  sent  word  of  his  discovery  to  Signor 
Puccini,  who  was  looking  for  the  subject  of  a  successor  to 
"  Tosca."  Signor  Puccini  came  to  London,  the  Japanese 
drama  found  favor  in  his  eyes,  and  he  bought  the  privilege 
of  turning  it  into  an  opera.  "  Madama  Butterfly  "  was  pro- 

*  Second  Book  of  Operas ;  Their  Histories,  Their  Plots,  and 
Their  Music."  By  H.  E.  Krehbiel.  New  York:  The  Macmillan 
Company,  1917.  P.  109. 


BELASCO'S  "  GIRL  OF  THE  GOLDEN  WEST  "        207 

duced  at  La  Scala  on  February  17,  1904,  and,  though  it 
made  so  great  a  fiasco  that  the  composer  withdrew  it  from 
the  stage  and  subjected  it  to  a  revision,  in  its  new  form — 
which  destroyed  the  feature  which  had  been  most  effective 
in  the  play,  the  vigil — the  opera  was  successfully  brought 
forward  at  Brescia  on  May  28,  1904.  An  English  version, 
after  a  trial  performance  at  Washington,  was  produced  at 
the  Garden  Theater  in  New  York  on  November  12,  1906, 
by  the  Savage  Opera  Company.  It  had  a  run  of  nearly 
three  months  before  it  reached  the  stage  of  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  on  February  n,  1907.  There  it  has  remained 
one  of  the  most  popular  of  Italian  operas  in  the  list  ever 
since. 

As  a  result  of  the  success  of  "  Madama  Butterfly,"  Mr. 
Puccini  arranged  to  have  Mr.  Belasco  send  him  every  play 
which  he  might  produce  which  he  thought  adaptable  to 
operatic  use,  and  in  pursuance  of  this,  when  he  wrote  "  The 
Girl  of  the  Golden  West,"  he  sent  it  to  the  composer  in 
Italy.  The  play,  which  has  its  scenes  in  and  near  a  mining 
camp  in  California,  tells  the  story  of  the  reclamation  of  an 
outlaw  by  a  barmaid  who  loves  him.  There  are  scenes  of 
drinking,  dancing,  and  gambling,  the  climax  of  which  is 
reached  when  a  rascally  sheriff  of  the  county,  a  gambler  and 
himself  in  love  with  the  girl,  discovers  from  a  drop  of  blood 
which  drips  upon  his  hand  from  the  ceiling  of  her  room 
that  the  man  for  whom  he  is  hunting,  wounded  by  a  bullet, 
is  in  hiding  in  the  attic.  He  is  about  to  seize  him  when  the 
girl  offers  to  play  him  a  game  of  poker — the  stakes  herself 
against  the  life  and  liberty  of  her  lover.  They  play,  and 
the  girl  wins  by  the  cheating  device  of  producing  a  card 
which  she  had  concealed  in  her  stocking.  Depraved  as  the 
sheriff  is,  he  is,  in  the  popular  phrase,  a  "  game  sport " ; 
he  leaves  the  girl  to  the  enjoyment  of  her  dishonest  victory, 
and  the  play  ends  with  a  picture  of  the  lovers  riding  over 
the  mountain  trail  towards  a  new  life  in  the  East.  Several 
incidents  of  the  play  were  fashioned  on  stories  of  life  in 


208  AMERICAN  MUSIC  IN  MELODRAMA 

California  in  the  days  of  the  mining  mania  told  to  Mr.  Be- 
lasco  by  his  father,  one  of  the  pioneers.  The  betrayal  of  a 
wounded  man  by  a  drop  of  blood  has  history  behind  it,  and 
Jake  Wallace,  a  wandering  banjoist  and  ex-negro  minstrel, 
was  a  veritable  character,  name  and  all.  To  heighten  the 
local  color  of  the  play  Mr.  Belasco  not  only  used  drop- 
curtains  with  artistically  illuminated  pictures  of  Rocky 
Mountain  scenery,  but  banished  the  orchestra  with  its  con- 
ventional between-acts  music,  and  for  it  substituted  a  band 
of  men-singers  and  players  on  the  concertina,  banjo  and 
bones,  giving  them  music  such  as  was  familiar  to  the  men  of 
'forty-nine — for  instance,  songs  like  "  Coal  Oil  Tommy," 
"  Pop  Goes  the  Weasel,"  "  Rosalie,  the  Prairie  Flower," 
and  "  The  Camptown  Races."  Here,  along  with  the  rude 
bardic  touch  lent  by  Jake  Wallace,  should  have  been  food 
for  the  imagination  of  Signor  Puccini  as  well  as  his  libret- 
tists. To  the  latter  it  proved  to  be  so  much  Choctaw,  which 
need  cause  no  special  wonder;  to  the  former,  little  better. 
This  was  less  excusable,  for  Signor  Puccini  had  had  occa- 
sion to  study  the  play  and  talk  about  it  with  Mr.  Belasco. 
When  he  came  to  New  York  to  attend  the  Italian  produc- 
tion of  "  Madama  Butterfly  "  the  melodrama  was  playing  at 
the  Academy  of  Music.  He  was  invited  to  witness  it,  but 
could  not  fix  a  date,  and  when  he  presented  himself  at  the 
Academy  one  evening  there  was  no  seat  to  be  had.  So  he 
stood  throughout  the  performance.  After  the  second  act 
he  went  behind  stage  to  see  Mr.  Belasco,  whom  he  em- 
braced, saying :  "  I  want  the  play ;  I  have  already  the  min- 
strel song  in  my  head."  With  Puccini  was  Mr.  George 
Maxwell,  representative  in  America  of  the  Ricordis,  Puc- 
cini's publishers,  a  canny  Scotsman  who  tried  in  vain  to 
check  the  composer's  enthusiasm  lest  it  should  interfere 
with  the  business  negotiations  which  were  beund  to  follow — 
an  unnecessary  concern,  for  Mr.  Belasco  had  sold  the  opera 
privilege  of  "  Madame  Butterfly "  to  Signor  Puccini  for 
$1,500  and  was  so  delighted  with  his  operatic  association 


"  LA  FANCIULLA  DEL  WEST  "  209 

that  he  was  willing  to  give  up  his  new  work  for  a  similar 
bagatelle. 

And  so  "  La  Fanciulla  del  West  "  was  passed  through  the 
transmogrifying  imaginations  of  Signer  Puccini  and  his  lit- 
erary collaborators  and  the  product  brought  to  New  York. 
Quite  naturally  the  newspapers  were  full  of  the  composer 
and  his  opera.  Signor  Puccini  confided  the  fact  to  a  re- 
porter of  the  Tribune  that  he  thought  the  music  was  the 
most  dramatic  he  had  ever  written  and  that  he  had  dedi- 
cated the  score  to  Queen  Alexandra  of  England  because  of 
her  admiration  for  "  Madame  Butterfly."  He  also  said  that 
he  had  striven  for  American  atmosphere  and  had  introduced 
a  few  measures  of  Indian  music  and  some  "  ragtime,"  but 
had  made  no  attempt  "  to  assimilate  essentially  American 
themes."  Mr.  Belasco  hastened  to  put  his  knowledge,  skill, 
and  experience  at  the  service  of  the  management.  He 
undertook  not  only  to  make  actors  out  of  opera-singers 
notoriously  indifferent  to  dramatic  truth  in  action  and 
wholly  slaves  of  convention,  but  also  to  make  likenesses 
of  American  miners,  Indians,  and  outlaws  out  of  a  crowd 
of  foreigners  who  knew  nothing  of  the  ways  and  habits  of 
the  persons  they  were  expected  to  represent.  He  used  all 
the  "  business  "of  the  original  prompt-book,  and,  though 
his  labors  were  arduous  and  long,  he  succeeded  remarkably 
well  in  making  the  opera  look  like  his  play.  He  could  not 
make  it  sound  like  it,  but  that  was  the  fault  of  the  art-form 
and  Signor  Puccini.  Commenting  on  the  result  to  a  re- 
porter for  the  Tribune  after  the  first  performance,  Mr. 
Belasco  said :  "  What  I  consider  most  remarkable  is  the 
repose  that  the  people  learned  in  their  actions.  American 
frontiersmen  are  outwardly  a  phlegmatic  lot,  and  the  Latins 
who  were  on  the  stage  were  naturally  anything  but  this. 
For  them  to  gesticulate  was  as  natural  as  to  talk  and  eat. 
In  addition,  they  had  been  appearing  constantly  in  opera  in 
which  gesticulation  and  constant  movement  were  especially 
taught.  Under  these  conditions  it  might  be  expected  that 


210     THE  OPERA  STAGED  BY  MR.  BELASCO 

it  would  be  exceedingly  hard  to  get  them  to  act  otherwise ; 
yet  any  one  who  saw  them  at  the  first  performance  could 
scarcely  believe  that  they  were  anything  but  Americans." 
This  was  true,  but  it  was  amusing  to  note  that  in  subse- 
quent performances  the  influence  of  Mr.  Belasco's  teachings 
rapidly  wore  off,  and  that  in  the  next  season  only  the  cos- 
tumes remained  to  distinguish  California  miners  from 
brigands  of  the  Abruzzi.  The  device  which  Mr.  Belasco 
adopted  to  secure  the  repose  which  he  was  proud  of  was  to 
make  the  actors  put  their  hands  in  their  pockets  as  soon  as 
they  began  to  gesticulate.  Caruso,  Amato,  Dinh  Gilly,  and 
Destinn  were  apt  pupils,  though  it  was  not  without  effort 
and  much  persuasion  that  the  first  could  be  induced  to  sing 
with  his  back  to  the  audience  when  the  situation  demanded 
that  attitude,  and  the  last  to  wear  cotton  stockings,  she  hav- 
ing, as  she  very  well  knew,  two  excellent  reasons  for  think- 
ing that  her  nether  limbs  should  be  enclosed  in  silk.  The 
parts  in  the  opera  were  distributed  as  follows : 

Minnie Emmy  Destinn 

Dick  Johnson  (Ramerrez,  the  Road-agent)    Enrico  Caruso 

Jack  Ranee  (Gambler  and  Sheriff)   Pasquale  Amato 

Nick,  Bartender  at  "  The  Polka  " Albert  Reiss 

Ashby,  Wells-Fargo  agent   Adamo  Didur 

Sonora    Dinh   Gilly 

Trin   Angelo   Bada 

Sid    Giulio    Rossi 

Bello   Vincenzo  Reschiglian 

Harry Pietro  Audisio 

Joe Glenn  Hall 

Happy    Antonio    Pini-Corsi 

Larkins  Bernard  Begue 

Billy,  an  Indian Georges  Bourgeois 

Wowkle,  his  Squaw  Marie  Mattfeld 

Jake  Wallace,  a  Minstrel  Andrea  de  Segurola 

Jose  Castro,  with  Ramerrez's  band  Edoardo  Missiano 

The  Pony  Express  Rider  Lamberto  Belleki 

Conductor,  Arturo  Toscanini 

Signor  Puccini  was  recreant  in  "  La  Fanciulla  del  West " 
to  the  "rust  which  he  had  invited  in  "  Madama  Butterfly." 


"OLD  DOG  TRAY"  IN  ITALIAN  IMAGINATION     211 

The  latter  opera,  it  may  be  admitted,  in  spite  of  all  the 
praise  that  I  have  at  various  times  bestowed  upon  it,  pro- 
claims very  little  that  well-read  (to  say  nothing  of  well- 
traveled)  people  did  not  know  to  be  wholly  fictitious  about 
the  costumes,  fashions,  habits,  and  ethics  of  Japan.  What 
makes  the  charm  of  the  opera  is  its  music  and  to  a  great 
extent  that  part  of  the  music  which  is  based  on  the  use  of 
folk-melody.  If  Signer  Puccini  could  make  so  much  of  the 
square-toed,  unemotional  tunes  of  the  Japanese  and  blend 
it  so  ingeniously  as  he  did  with  the  music  of  his  native 
land,  why  was  it  that  he  did  not  put  at  least  one  little 
splash  of  American  pigment  on  the  musical  canvas  of  "  La 
Fanciulla  "  ?  He  planned  the  work  for  America,  its  story 
was  thoroughly  American,  he  had  had  an  opportunity  to 
observe  the  effect  of  popular  American  tunes  upon  the  play. 
He  did  not  plan  "  Madama  Butterfly  "  for  Japan,  but  for 
the  world.  The  absence  of  anything  in  the  score  savoring 
of  American  music  was  a  disappointment.  There  had  been 
music  in  the  old  melodrama  which  cried  out  in  spirit  at 
least  for  admission  to  the  opera.  It  was  not  necessary  that 
we  should  have  had  "  Pop  Goes  the  Weasel,"  or  "  Camp- 
town  Races,"  or  "  Old  Dog  Tray,"  but  if  we  were  denied 
the  flavor  of  them,  why  should  we  have  references  to  them 
in  the  text  and  at  least  one  musical  quotation  which  it 
might  be  said  became  intelligible  only  if  one  stood  on  his 
head  ?  Why  give  us  Stephen  C.  Foster's  "  Dooda,  dooda 
da,"  upside  down?  What  strange  conception  filled  the 
minds  of  the  librettists  when  they  wrote  the  bewildering 
reference  to  "  Old  Dog  Tray  "  which  the  miners  sang  while 
pounding  rhythmically  on  the  tables  with  their  fists  ?  "  II 
mio  cano,  dopo  tanto  mi  ravisera  "  ("  My  dog,  will  he  rec- 
ognize me  after  so  long  a  time?  ") — that  is  what  Jake  Wal- 
lace sang  when  he  made  Jim  Larkins  homesick !  This  tune 
was  the  bit  of  Indian  melody  which  we  were  told  Signor 
Puccini  had  incorporated  in  its  score.  If  so,  the  Indian 
who  contributed  it  was  familiar  with  Denza's  "  Funiculi, 


212  NOISES  AS  DRAMATIC  MUSIC 

funicula."  When  Puccini  reached  London  after  the  Ameri- 
can premiere  of  "  The  Girl "  he  answered  the  criticism  of 
a  want  of  American  color  in  the  opera  by  saying  that  the 
slave  songs  of  our  South  were  barbarous  noises.  Was  that 
the  reason  why  he  permitted  a  negro  minstrel  to  wander 
around  miners'  camps  singing  an  Indian  tune?  An  Indian 
tune  like  that  given  to  "  Che  ferrano  i  vecchi  miei "  might 
have  tickled  the  ears  of  'Forty-niners  or  tried  their  tempers  ; 
it  couldn't  give  a  mammy-sick  schoolboy  nostalgia. 

The  musical  structure  of  the  opera  is  erected  on  the  mod- 
ern German  notion  (against  which  Signer  Puccini  has  often 
protested,  though  never  so  effectively  as  in  "  La  Boheme  ") 
that  the  words  are  to  float  on  the  instrumental  flood  and 
that  vocal  melody  is  therefore  of  secondary  importance. 
Nine-tenths  of  the  time  his  vocal  melody  is  nothing  and  his 
instrumental  nothing  better  when  it  is  striving  to  be  "  na- 
tional." Instead  of  upholding  melody  as  the  first  essential 
of  opera,  he  no  sooner  reaches  a  dramatic  moment  than  he 
drops  it  altogether  and  resorts  to  harmonic  and  instru- 
mental effects  to  keep  up  the  emotional  excitement  which 
in  the  first  instance  was  created  by  the  play.  He  uses  music 
as  mere  color — as  a  creator  of  atmosphere — as  frankly  as 
Richard  Strauss  in  "  Salome,"  but  much  less  ingeniously. 
He  could  not  compose  music  for  the  scene  of  the  card  game, 
so  he  makes  noises  in  the  bass  voices  of  his  orchestra  while 
the  game  progresses;  but  Strauss  froze  the  blood  of  his 
listeners  with  uncanny  sounds  while  murder  was  doing  in 
the  cistern.  Puccini  only  piques  curiosity.  When  will  the 
basses  stop  their  iteration?  Signor  Puccini  and  his  libret- 
tists followed  Mr.  Belasco  up  to  the  last  act.  Then  they 
introduced  a  lynching  scene  amid  the  redwood  trees  and 
gave  the  tenor  another  chance  to  sing  a  song  and  the  so- 
prano a  chance  to  make  another  appeal  for  the  tenor's  life; 
more  song,  Italian  song  like  all  that  which  both  soprano  and 
tenor  had  been  singing  from  the  beginning  of  the  opera. 
But  by  this  time  the  manner  has  become  so  familiar  that 


HUMPERDINCK'S  "  KONIGSKINDER"  213 

the  listeners  can  care  little  for  it  and  there  is  interest  only 
in  the  excited  dramatic  scene  which  Mr.  Belasco  had  suc- 
ceeded in  creating  by  his  training  of  the  Italian  chorus  and 
the  galloping  back  and  forth  of  horses.  There  were  many 
horses  in  "  La  Fanciulla  "  because  the  resources  of  the  Met- 
ropolitan Opera  House  are  not  small.  They  have  never 
been  small,  and  in  the  matter  of  horses  they  had  long  before 
discounted  the  present  production.  When  Spontini's  "  Her- 
nando  Cortez  "  was  produced  on  the  same  stage  in  the  long- 
agone  German  period  I  figured  out  that  there  were  more 
horses  on  the  stage  than  Cortez  ever  brought  into  Mexico. 
But  horses  do  not  make  up  for  a  want  of  music  with  the 
tang  which  is  native  of  the  soil  and  which  must  go  with  this 
play  if  ever  it  is  to  be  made  into  a  popular  opera. 

On  December  28,  1910,  Humperdinck's  "  Konigskinder  " 
had  its  first  performance  on  any  stage  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  under  the  direction  of  Alfred  Hertz  and  the 
supervision  of  the  composer.  The  cast  was  as  follows : 

The  King's  Son   Hermann  Jadlowker 

The  Goose-Girl Geraldine  Farrar 

The  Fiddler    Otto    Goritz 

The  Witch   Louise  Homer 

The  Woodcutter   Adamo  Didur 

The  Broommaker   Albert  Reiss 

~        ,-,.,,  jEdna  Walter 

Two  Children    •(  T    ...     -r-       i 

|  Lottie  Engel 

The  Senior  Councilor Marcel  Reiner 

The  Innkeeper   Antonio  Pini-Corsi 

The  Inkeeper's   Daughter    Florence  Wickham 

The  Tailor  Julius  Bayer 

The  Stable  Maid  Marie  Mattfeld 

First  Gate- Keeper   Ernst  Maran 

Second  Gate-Keeper    William   Hinshaw 

Though  the  performance  was  what  the  Germans  would 
have  called  an  Urauffiihrung,  there  were  few  elements  of 
novelty  in  this  opera.  New  Yorkers  had  known  it,  or  known 
of  it,  for  twelve  years  as  a  spoken  play,  and  its  overture 
and  two  orchestral  interludes  had  figured  in  their  concert- 


214  POINTED  MUSIC  IN  A  DRAMA 

rooms  for  about  the  same  length  of  time.  The  drama  was 
brought  to  New  York  in  1898  by  Mr.  Conried  and  produced 
at  the  German  Theater  in  Irving  Place  with  incidental 
music  and  songs,  and  two  years  or  so  later  it  was  produced 
in  English  at  the  Herald  Square  Theater.  As  I  have  ex- 
plained in  my  "  Second  Book  of  Operas,"  *  the  work  was 
originally  a  new  experiment  with  a  very  ancient  form — 
melodrama  in  the  antique  and  only  proper  sense  of  the 
term.  "  The  second  and  third  acts  have  their  prelude,  and 
the  songs  of  the  minstrel  have  their  melodies  and  accom- 
paniments, and  all  the  principal  scenes  have  been  provided 
with  illustrative  music  in  the  Wagnerian  manner,  with  this 
difference,  that  the  dialogue  has  been  '  pointed,'  as  a  church 
musician  would  say,  i.e.  the  rhythm  was  indicated  with 
exactness  and  even  the  variations  of  pitch,  though  it  was 
said  that  the  purpose  was  not  to  achieve  song,  but  an  intensi- 
fied utterance  halfway  between  speech  and  song."  Herr 
Humperdinck's  experiment,  familiar  enough  in  small  forms, 
proved  to  be  abortive  when  applied  to  an  extended  drama, 
and  was  abandoned,  so  that  "  Konigskinder  "  as  given  at 
the  German  Theater  was  merely  a  play  with  music  specially 
composed  for  it.  It  was  so  near  an  opera  in  spirit  and  the 
musical  investiture  which  Humperdinck  had  given  it,  how- 
ever, that  its  complete  translation  was  inevitable,  and  after 
Herr  Humperdinck  had  visited  New  York  to  witness  the 
triumph  of  "  Hansel  und  Gretel  "  he  gladly  accepted  a  com- 
mission to  make  the  operatic  version  and  give  the  right  of 
first  performance  to  the  Metropolitan  Company.  It  was 
Mr.  Dippel's  plan  that  the  opera  should  first  be  performed 
in  an  English  version,  but,  as  I  have  explained  elsewhere, 
the  need  of  hurry  in  order  to  save  the  privilege  of  a  world 
premiere  led  to  a  retention  of  the  original  language,  and  to 
the  best  of  my  memory  it  has  had  no  English  performance 
as  yet,  though  it  was  scheduled  in  the  Century  Company's 
list  for  1913-14.  To  the  fact  of  a  first  performance  I  fancy 
*  Op.  cit.,  p.  201. 


FARKAR 
In  "Konigskinder"' 


THE  DUBIOUS  VALUE  OF  FIRST  PERFORMANCES     215 

a  great  deal  more  importance  was  attached  than  such  an 
occasion  warranted,  except  from  a  business  point  of  view, 
and  this  was  minimized  when  the  management  put  the  Ger- 
man work  at  once  in  the  subscription  repertory  after  with- 
holding "  La  Fanciulla  del  West  "  for  two  special  perform- 
ances at  double  prices.  The  proceeding  disclosed  a  policy 
of  the  management  which  was  promptly  rebuked  by  the  pub- 
lic, and  it  would  have  worked  no  harm  to  art,  nor  lessened 
the  prestige  of  the  company,  to  have  permitted  both  operas 
to  be  presented  in  Europe  before  bringing  them  out  in  New 
York.  It  will  be  understood  that  I  am  speaking  purely  from 
an  artistic  point  of  view,  having  no  desire  to  raise  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  validity  of  the  commercial  traditions  of  the 
theater.  There  would  have  been  a  truer  standard  of  judg- 
ment in  respect  of  Puccini's  opera  had  it  been  compelled  at 
the  beginning  of  its  career  to  forego  the  fictitious  advan- 
tages of  the  local  popularity  of  its  subject,  its  original 
author,  and  its  singers ;  and  of  "  Konigskinder  "  it  may  be 
truthfully  said  that  it  would  have  benefited  had  it  been  de- 
layed till  an  equally  sympathetic  representation,  even  if  it 
had  not  been  so  good  in  Berlin,  had  demonstrated  that,  for 
the  sake  of  the  play  as  well  as  the  music,  the  opera  needed 
the  pruning  which  it  subsequently  received. 

There  is  allegory,  too  much  allegory,  in  the  story  of 
"  Konigskinder,"  but  in  its  simple  externals  it  is  beautiful 
and  touching.  It  is  all  about  a  goose-herd,  held  in  thrall  by 
a  witch,  who,  through  love  for  a  wandering  prince,  breaks 
the  bonds  of  enchantment,  is  called  by  the  prescience  of  a 
minstrel  and  some  children  to  royal  estate  by  the  side  of 
her  lover,  fails  of  recognition  because  of  the  boorishness  of 
those  who  should  have  been  her  proud  subjects,  and  dies  by 
the  side  of  her  lover  in  the  loneliness  of  a  forest,  where 
their  bodies  are  covered  by  a  pall  of  snow,  to  which  the  citi- 
zens of  Hellabrunn  are  led  too  late  by  a  group  of  children 
directed  by  a  bird.  With  what  exquisite  charm  Miss  Far- 
rar  was  likely  to  invest  so  romantic  a  heroine  the  artist's 


216  "  ARIANE  ET  BARBE-BLEUE  " 

admirers  might  easily  have  guessed;  but  it  is  doubtful  if 
any  imagination  ever  reached  the  figure  which  she  bodied 
forth.  She  was  a  vision  of  tender  loveliness,  as  perfect  in 
poetical  conception  as  in  execution.  Memories  of  the  pic- 
ture which  she  presented  walking  through  the  massive  town- 
gates  followed  and  surrounded  by  her  white  flock  will  die 
only  with  the  generation  that  witnessed  it. 

The  last  of  the  three  novelties  produced  by  the  Metropoli- 
tan Company  in  the  season  of  1910-11  was  "  Ariane  et 
Barbe-Bleue,"  an  opera  in  three  acts,  libretto  by  Maurice 
Maeterlinck,  music  by  Paul  Dukas.  The  date  was  March 
29,  1911;  the  language  French.  Signor  Toscanini  con- 
ducted, and  the  cast  was  as  follows : 

Ariane Geraldine  Farrar 

Barbe-Bleue    Leon    Rothier 

The  Nurse  Florence  Wickham 

Selysette  Jeanne  Maubourg 

Ygraine   Leonora   Sparkes 

Melisande   Rosina  Van  Dyck 

Bellangere  Henrietta  Wakefield 

Alladine   Lucia  Fornaroli 

An  old  Peasant Georges  Bourgeois 

Second  Peasant Bernard  Begue 

Third  Peasant Basil  Ruysdael 

The  names  of  the  authors  of  this  opera  compel  respect 
and  therefore  the  work  invites  interest;  but  if  one  were  to 
wish  to  be  serious  in  an  analysis  of  it,  the  result,  I  fear, 
would  not  bring  honor  either  to  the  original  authors  or 
those  who  were  concerned  in  its  representation.  The  title 
of  the  opera  piques  curiosity  because  of  the  singular  juxta- 
position of  the  names  composing  it.  We  have  a  school  of 
Maeterlinckian  expositors  who  seem  to  be  as  serious  as  the 
members  of  Browning  clubs  in  their  interpretation  of  all 
that  the  Belgian  poet  has  written.  So,  too,  we  have  a  school 
of  musical  critics  who  hail  with  gladness  everything  which 
differs  so  much  from  the  old  ideas  and  canons  of  beauty 
that  they  are  able  to  show  their  peculiar  prescience  and 


217 

their  extraordinarily  exquisite  sensibilities  only  by  indulging 
in  long  compages  of  words  equally  vague  and  grandiloquent 
which  normal  minds,  though  ever  so  willing,  can  not  assimi- 
late. Of  course  assimilation,  which  implies  a  sort  of  under- 
standing at  least,  is  not  necessary  in  these  enlightened  days. 
If  you  want  to  be  reckoned  among  the  inner  brotherhood  it 
is  only  necessary  to  affect  to  admire  what  is  new  and  what 
you  do  not  understand.  To  make  a  case  out  of  the  new 
opera :  The  French  Ariane  is  the  old  Ariadne.  She  was  an 
operatic  heroine  when  opera  began.  A  famous  poet  made 
a  dramatic  creation  of  her  and  a  more  famous  musician  set 
her  to  music  early  in  the  seventeenth  century.  She  was  the 
daughter  of  Minos,  King  of  Crete,  who,  becoming  enam- 
ored of  Theseus,  gave  him  the  clue  which  helped  him  out 
of  the  famous  maze  and  enabled  him  to  kill  the  monster 
who  had  exacted  a  sacrifice  of  Athenian  maidens  for  years. 
Theseus  did  not  treat  her  well,  according  to  tradition,  and 
for  that  reason  we  have  one  arioso  which  has  been  sung  to 
the  music  of  Monteverde  since  the  early  part  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  and  which  is  a  finer  piece  than  anything  of 
a  like  character  written  since — certainly  much  more  moving 
and  convincing  than  anything  in  the  opera  heard  on  this 
occasion  for  the  first  time  in  America.  By  a  strange  coin- 
cidence M.  Maeterlinck's  opera  followed  by  about  a  year  in 
Paris  M.  Massenet's  setting  of  the  antique  story  as  put  into 
dramatic  form  by  Catulle  Mendes;  but  M.  Massenet,  it 
seems,  does  not  appear  to  have  been  as  appealing  to  us  as 
M.  Dukas,  who  is  a  representative  of  the  new  French 
school  that  has  no  affiliation  with  the  men  who  have  main- 
tained the  principles  and  the  glory  of  the  old  French  school. 
M.  Maeterlinck's  heroine  is  called  Ariane,  we  imagine,  be- 
cause in  his  opera-book  she  attempts  to  show  how  one  may 
escape  from  a  labyrinth.  She  sees  the  light,  or  knows  the 
thread,  and  points  it  out  to  the  slaves  of  her  sex.  She  does 
not  follow  the  light  herself,  however,  and  the  moral  of  the 
drama,  if  there  is  any,  is  lost  at  the  end  of  the  play  when 


2i8         MAETERLINCK'S  VERSION  OF  THE  STORY 

she — if  Miss  Farrar  interpreted  her  correctly — sorrowfully 
and  hesitatingly  takes  herself  out  of  the  embraces  of  the 
monster  man. 

Here  is  the  story  of  the  opera ;  Blue-Beard  has  had  five 
wives  who  have  disappeared  so  mysteriously  as  to  cause 
suspicion  and  anger  among  the  peasantry  who  live  about 
his  castle.  He  is  now  bringing  home  a  sixth  wife.  We 
hear  the  angry  mutterings  of  the  country-folk  warning  her 
of  her  threatened  fate.  Ariane  enters,  undaunted,  self- 
reliant,  radiant.  She  has  faith  in  her  beauty  and  the  love 
of  her  husband.  She  will  learn  the  secret  of  the  ominous 
disappearance  of  her  predecessors  with  the  help  of  the  seven 
keys,  six  of  silver  and  one  of  gold,  which  had  been  en- 
trusted to  her.  If  her  predecessors  were  lost,  she  argues,  it 
was  because  of  their  hesitant  timidity.  She  will  not  hesi- 
tate; she  will  be  brave,  resist  the  tyrant,  and  thus  over- 
come him.  She  throws  aside  the  six  silver  keys,  but  her 
nurse  picks  them  up  and  with  them  unlocks  in  succession 
six  of  the  seven  doors  which  open  into  Blue-Beard's  hall. 
What  do  the  secret  chambers  disclose?  Only  heaps  of  glit- 
tering jewels  of  many  hues.  They  have  no  interest  for 
Ariane.  With  the  seventh  key  she  opens  the  seventh  door. 
A  dark  passageway,  out  of  which  issues  the  sound  of  sing- 
ing, remote,  muffled,  melancholy,  confronts  her.  She  is 
about  to  move  into  the  gloom  when  Blue-Beard  arrests  her 
steps. 

"  You,  too?    It  was  a  mere  trifle  that  I  asked  of  you." 
"  You  asked  more  of  these  than  I  ever  gave." 
"  And  you  have  sacrificed  the  happiness  which  I  had  pur- 
posed to  give  you." 

"  The  happiness  which  I  desire  does  not  dwell  in  dark- 
ness. When  I  know  all  it  will  be  my  privilege  to  pardon." 

Blue-Beard  seizes  his  victim  to  take  her  away  by  force, 
but  she  raises  an  alarm  and  the  peasants  break  into  the  hall. 
The  monster  draws  his  weapon,  but  Ariane  coolly  addresses 
the  mob : 


THE  STORY  CONTINUED  219 

"  What  would  you  ?    He  has  done  me  no  harm." 

The  peasantry  withdraw  from  the  hall,  Ariane  closes  the 
door  and  calmly  faces  Blue-Beard,  who,  with  humble  mien 
and  downcast  eyes,  glances  irresolutely  at  the  edge  of  his 
scimitar. 

Guided  by  the  light  of  a  flickering  lamp  in  the  hands  of 
her  nurse,  Ariane  gropes  her  way  through  the  gloomy  pas- 
sage and  at  length  comes  into  a  subterranean  chamber, 
where  she  finds  the  missing  wives  of  the  monster,  huddled 
together,  listless,  inactive.  She  arouses  them  from  their 
semi-stupor.  The  lamp  goes  out,  but  through  the  blackness 
there  shines  a  tiny  ray  of  light.  The  imprisoned  women 
had  often  seen  it,  but  to  them  it  meant  nothing.  It  is  an 
inspiration  to  Ariane.  She  traces  it  to  its  source  in  a  bit 
of  clear  glass  in  a  grimy  pane.  She  breaks  the  pane  and 
by  the  light  thus  released  discovers  a  huge  window  be- 
smeared with  pitch.  Her  companions  catch  the  infection  of 
her  example  and  merrily  smash  the  frail  barrier  which  had 
shut  them  out  from  sunlight.  She  leads  them  singing  tri- 
umphantly into  the  glory  of  day. 

They  come  again  into  Blue-Beard's  hall.  Liberated  from 
the  dungeon,  they  are  happy  in  the  companionship  of  Ari- 
ane, though  they  see  no  escape  from  the  castle.  She  dis- 
closes to  them  the  secret  of  power  which  lies  in  their  phys- 
ical charms. 

"  I  do  not  marvel  more  that  he  did  not  love  you  as  he 
should  have  loved  you,  nor  that  he  coveted  a  hundred 
women  while  he  possessed  not  one." 

Blue-Beard  is  heard  returning  to  his  castle,  and  there  is 
tumult  without.  Terror  falls  upon  all  the  women  except 
Ariane.  The  peasants  attempt  to  bar  his  entrance  and 
attack  the  retainers,  who  at  length  run  away  and  leave  him 
to  the  enraged  country-folk,  who  bind  him  and  deliver  him 
up  to  the  vengeance  of  his  victims.  The  old  wives  are 
frightened  more  by  the  angry  mob  than  at  the  coming 
of  their  tyrant ;  but  Ariane  calmly  unbars  the  door.  When 


220  AN  INTERPRETATION  BY  MISS  FARRAR 

Blue-Beard  is  brought  into  the  hall  the  five  women  fall  on 
their  knees,  but  Ariane  advances  to  him  and  tenderly  dresses 
his  wounds.  Strange  sight!  The  women  gather  around, 
curiosity  growing  into  sympathy  and  sympathy  into  horror 
when  Ariane  calls  for  a  dagger.  She  is  about  to  kill  him, 
of  course.  No  ;  she  cuts  the  cords  that  bind  his  hands.  He 
gazes  in  silence  at  the  liberated  women  and  while  he  so 
looks  at  them  Ariane  kisses  him  on  the  forehead  and  says : 
"  Farewell !  "  Now  he  seeks  to  detain  her,  but  she  will  not 
have  it  so.  "  I  am  going  far  away,"  she  says,  "  down 
yonder  where  they  are  still  waiting  for  me !  "  To  one  after 
the  other  of  the  wives  she  offers  her  hand  to  lead  them 
with  her,  but  they  turn  away  from  her  help  and  gather 
around  Blue-Beard,  whose  look  of  longing  is  all  that  she 
carries  away  with  her  from  the  scene. 

A  pretty  story,  which  might  have  been  more  prettily  told 
by  a  better  and  more  leisurely  pen  than  mine,  and  obviously 
an  allegory.  Miss  Farrar  expounded  it  to  the  world  through 
an  interview  in  the  Tribune:  "  Blue-Beard  is  the  old-fash- 
ioned man  who  regards  women  as  his  slaves,  and  the  five 
wives  are  the  old-fashioned  woman  who  is  happy  in  being 
regarded  as  such.  Ariane  is  the  emancipated  woman,  the 
woman  who  has  learned  to  think  for  herself,  who  has  come 
to  respect  herself.  The  golden  key  is  the  key  of  her  knowl- 
edge, the  knowledge  that  is  to  admit  woman  into  her  king- 
dom of  the  future."  In  the  presence  of  Miss  Farrar,  M. 
Maeterlinck's  statement  that  he  had  no  philosophical  teach- 
ing in  mind  when  he  wrote  his  play  and  the  evidence  fur- 
nished by  the  play  itself  fall  to  the  ground.  We  are  living 
in  a  happy  day  when  a  prima  donna  may  tell  us  what  a  poet 
means  even  if  she  disagrees  with  him.  Nevertheless,  it 
may  be  that  M.  Maeterlinck  knew  what  he  was  talking  about 
when  he  made  light  of  his  "  Ariane  et  Barbe-Bleue  "  and 
said  it  was  intended  only  for  a  comic  opera  and  had  no 
moral  lesson  attached  to  it.  I  am  willing  to  go  a  step 
farther  and  say  that,  while  indulging  his  love  for  symbol- 


OFFENBACH'S  AMUSING  FARCE  221 

ism  to  the  extent  of  giving  the  name  of  Ariane  to  his  hero- 
ine, he  did  not  hesitate  to  take  his  dramatic  motive  from 
Offenbach's  "  Barbe-Bleue,"  for  which  Meilhac  and  Halevy 
wrote  the  words.  In  this  delightful  old  opera  bouffe,  as  in 
Maeterlinck's  drama,  Blue-Beard's  wives  are  not  killed,  but 
live  in  a  subterranean  chamber  of  his  palace  until  the  chem- 
ist, who  was  supposed  to  have  poisoned  them,  becomes 
troubled  by  qualms  of  conscience  and  brings  them  forth  to 
confront  the  monster,  who  now  is  less  disturbed  by  the 
thought  of  murder  than  by  the  conviction  that  he  is  a 
polygamist.  The  conviction  is  more  than  he  can  bear,  and 
he  readily  consents  to  a  pairing-off  of  all  his  supposedly 
dead  wives  to  an  equal  number  of  gentlemen  who  had  been 
condemned  to  death  but  had  been  kept  (like  Maeterlinck's 
wives)  imprisoned  in  a  dungeon  under  Blue-Beard's  palace. 
To  his  sixth  wife  Offenbach's  monster  promises  fidelity 
and  obedience,  a  much  more  complete  victory  for  woman 
than  Ariane  obtains.  Critics  who  are  fond  of  diving  so 
deeply  into  the  subject  of  their  studies  that  they  frequently 
bring  up  mud  on  their  heads  ought  to  compare  the  books  of 
Dukas's  opera  and  Offenbach's  farce.  For  them  there  was 
edification  in  the  symbolism  of  Maeterlinck.  Symbolism  is 
a  fine  thing  with  which  to  occupy  one's  mind  when  the  dia- 
logue and  incidents  of  a  play  are  no  longer  interesting. 
When  Golaud  maunders  about  his  broken  head  it  is  in- 
structive to  reflect  on  the  symbolism  of  the  fact  that  he  ran 
against  a  tree  at  precisely  twelve  o'clock ;  but  somehow  this 
does  not  promote  the  dramatic  action  which  ought  to  be  the 
businesf  of  "  Pelleas  et  Melisande."  M.  Maeterlinck  had 
told  us  that  he  did  not  attempt  to  teach  any  deep  lesson  in 
"  Ariane  et  Barbe-Bleue,"  but  M.  Dukas  and  Miss  Farrar 
knew  better.  Therefore  M.  Dukas  wrote  music  which  is 
profoundly  serious  and  of  great  interest  to  musicians,  as 
well  as  very  beautiful  at  times.  There  are  also  many  things 
in  it  which  are  futile.  What  value  has  a  chorus  if  all  the 
words  are  unintelligible?  All  the  tale  of  Ariane's  appre- 


222  DEFECTS  OF  MAETERLINCK'S  BOOK 

bended  doom  and  the  determination  of  the  peasants  to  save 
her  is  told  in  detached  fragments  of  song  which  can  only 
be  called  words  out  of  courtesy  to  the  libretto.  The  bits  of 
strophic  song  by  women's  voices  which  arise  from  the  depths 
when  the  forbidden  door  is  opened  help  the  orchestra  to 
disseminate  a  strangely  fascinating  atmosphere  over  the 
scene,  but  if  it  was  not  intended  that  they  should  be  intelli- 
gible why  were  they  written?  Dukas  had  as  little  use  for 
them  as  his  model  Debussy  had  for  articulate  speech  in  his 
"  Sirens."  Vocal  tone  is  used  only  for  color.  There  is 
little  attempt  at  melody,  but  only  at  declamation  over  the 
instrumental  part.  The  people  act  and  speak ;  the  orchestra 
interprets  the  drama.  The  music  is  not  as  subservient  to 
conventional  forms  as  that  of  the  Symphony  in  C,  which 
had  been  heard  a  few  weeks  before  at  a  concert  of  the  Sym- 
phony Society,  but  for  the  greater  part  it  is  more  vertebrate 
than  that  of  Debussy,  after  which  it  was  modeled.  Perhaps 
Maeterlinck  is  a  wag,  and  M.  Dukas  did  not  know  it.  The 
story  goes  that  the  poet  sent  his  book  to  Debussy,  who  re- 
turned it,  saying  that  it  was  impracticable.  If  so,  Debussy's 
judgment  was  sound.  Such  a  book  was  not  for  him  nor 
is  it  dramatically  good.  For  one  thing,  it  is  designed  for 
one  singer,  which  is  a  serious  defect.  Moreover,  it  is  an 
opera  in  which  the  actress  who  is  expected  to  carry  the 
burden  of  the  work  is  compelled  two-thirds  of  the  time  to 
sing  and  act  in  semi-darkness.  I  fear  that  M.  Dukas  took 
M.  Maeterlinck's  book  much  too  seriously.  Had  he  looked 
at  Offenbach's  "  Barbe-Bleue,"  as  I  feel  sure  M.  Maeter- 
linck did,  he  would  have  realized  that  the  conclusion  of  the 
play  is  farcical  and  called  for  a  light  touch  in  the  score.  In 
Offenbach's  book  the  sixth  wife  brings  Blue-Beard  into  an 
attitude  of  submission  and  keeps  him  for  herself.  In  Mae- 
terlinck's book  the  sixth  wife  delivers  her  companions  back 
into  slavery  and  leaves  them  there.  The  tender  attitudi- 
nizing of  Miss  Farrar  and  M.  Rothier  at  the  last  were  as 
little  part  of  the  poet's  purpose  as  the  melodramatic  action 


A  SATIRE,  NOT  A  PLEA  223 

in  which  Miss  Farrar  indulged  when  she  cut  the  tyrant's 
bonds.  All  the  instruction  which  Ariane  gives  her  liberated 
sisters  tends  only  to  fit  them  better  to  be  the  playthings  of 
man  which  at  the  end  they  show  themselves  determined  to 
remain.  Melisande  must  disclose  the  wonder  of  her  hair ; 
Ygraine  the  lovely  contour  of  her  arms ;  Bellangere  of  her 
shoulders;  Alladine  is  made  to  discard  her  veils  and  wrap- 
pings, wherefore  she  throws  herself  upon  a  couch  and  kicks 
up  her  heels  in  sheer  enjoyment  of  her  semi-nudity.  Not  a 
suggestion  of  the  need  of  intellectual  or  moral  qualities. 
Whence,  then,  came  the  talk  about  an  allegory  of  woman's 
emancipation?  That  consummation  is  better  set  forth  in 
Offenbach's  farce.  M.  Maeterlinck  wrote  a  satire,  not  a 
plea  for  woman's  suffrage. 


CHAPTER  IX 

A  VISIT  FROM  THE  CHICAGO-PHILADELPHIA 
COMPANY 

INFLUENCES  OF  HAMMERSTEIN  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN— THE 
DECAY  OF  FRENCH  OPERA— HAMMERSTEIN'S  CHICAGO 
SCHEME— PHILADELPHIA  BRINGS  NOVELTIES  TO  NEW  YORK 
— "  NATOMA  "— SOME  OF  ITS  PREDECESSORS— A  CENTURY  OF 
AMERICAN  OPERA— THE  LIBRETTIST'S  POETRY—"  IL  SEGRETO 
DI  SUSANNA"— A  GERMAN  OPERA  SUNG  IN  ITALIAN— "  QUO 
VADIS?"— NERO  THE  SINGER  IN  OPERA  AND  HISTORY- 
STORY  OF  THE  OPERA,  AND  COMMENTS 

IN  his  four  tempestuous  years  at  the  Manhattan  Opera 
House  Mr.  Hammerstein  spun  Ariadne  threads  which  the 
historian  of  the  future  will  probably  find  running  through 
the  maze  of  opera  in  New  York  for  many  years,  and  he  will 
be  credited  with  clear  prescience  as  well  as  the  qualities 
which  my  story  of  his  career  plainly  discloses.  The  Metro- 
politan Opera  Company  apparently  picked  up  one  of  these 
threads  when  it  resolved  to  meet  Mr.  Hammerstein's  chal- 
lenge contained  in  his  promise  to  incorporate  original  Eng- 
lish opera  in  his  repertory  when  it  established  its  great 
prize  contest.  It  followed  another  somewhat  deviously 
when  it  entered  into  an  agreement  to  co-operate  with  the 
gentlemen  who  wished  to  give  opera  a  local  habitation  and 
a  name  in  Chicago  and  Philadelphia,  and  still  another  when 
it  recognized  the  need  of  satisfying  the  demand  for  French 
opera  which  Mr.  Hammerstein  had  created,  though  the 
policy  which  had  been  pursued  by  Mr.  Conried  and  Mr. 
Gatti  made  it  necessary  to  call  in  the  help  of  the  Chicago- 
Philadelphia-Philadelphia-Chicago  Company.  Under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  Conried  and  his  successor  French  opera, 
which  had  provided  the  high  lights  of  Mr.  Grau's  con- 
cluding seasons,  was  permitted  to  languish.  In  the  five 

224 


HAMMERSTEIN'S  CHICAGO  PROJECT  225 

years  of  the  Conried  regime  there  were  only  57  representa- 
tions in  French  and  of  the  six  French  operas  performed 
only  one  was  new  to  the  public.  This  was  Berlioz's  "  Dam- 
nation de  Faust,"  which  had  its  first  American  representa- 
tion at  the  Metropolitan  on  December  7,  1906.  In  Signer 
Gatti's  first  year  the  only  French  operas  in  the  list  were 
"  Carmen,"  "  Faust,"  and  "  Manon,"  which,  combined,  had 
19  representations;  in  the  second  the  operas  were  "Ma- 
non," "Faust,"  "Fra  Diavolo,"  and  "  Werther,"  and  the 
representations  were  14  in  number ;  in  the  third  there  were 
only  13  representations,  though  two  novelties,  "  Armide " 
and  "  Ariane  et  Barbe-Bleue,"  were  consorted  with  old 
favorites,  "  Faust "  and  "  Romeo  et  Juliette."  To  supply 
the  demand  which  Mr.  Hammerstein  had  ingeniously  fos- 
tered resort  was  had  in  this  year  to  periodical  visits  from 
the  Philadelphia-Chicago  combination  organized  out  of  the 
singers  which  had  been  Mr.  Hammerstein's.  I  am  not  quite 
certain  but  that  the  Chicago  enterprise  had  its  inception — 
or,  if  not  its  inception,  at  least  its  determinative  impetus — 
in  one  of  Mr.  Hammerstein's  projects  of  universal  con- 
quest, the  spirit  of  which  also  animated  the  Metropolitan 
Company  in  the  period  of  great  rivalry.  After  the  season 
1908-09,  which  Mr.  Hammerstein  looked  upon  as  a  season 
of  prosperity,  he  decided  to  build  an  opera  house  in  Chi- 
cago. Mr.  Rabinoff  took  a  hand  in  the  enterprise,  which 
was  conducted  with  the  utmost  possible  secrecy.  He  bought 
an  option  on  a  site  for  the  building  in  North  Clark  Street 
for  $5,000,  employed  a  lawyer  to  look  after  his  legal  inter- 
ests and  a  firm  of  architects  to  make  the  designs.  The 
Auditorium  Theater  was  under  lease  at  the  time  to  Messrs. 
Klaw  &  Erlanger,  who  were  giving  cheap  vaudeville  per- 
formances at  such  a  loss  that  they  offered  to  transfer  the 
lease,  which  had  eight  years  to  run,  to  Hammerstein  for 
nothing ;  but  he  refused  it,  bent  upon  carrying  out  his  North 
Clark  Street  project.  Meanwhile  the  Chicago  project  of 
Mr.  Dippel,  warmly  espoused  by  Mr.  Clarence  Mackay, 


226      VISIT  BY  PHILADELPHIA-CHICAGO  COMPANY 

took  form  and  Klaw  &  Erlanger  disposed  of  their  lease  to 
the  Chicago  Grand  Opera  Company,  getting,  it  is  said, 
$100,000  for  what,  Mr.  Hammerstein  told  me,  had  been 
offered  to  him  as  a  gift.  Official  announcement  of  the  or- 
ganization of  the  Chicago  Grand  Opera  Company  was  made 
on  December  9,  1909.  It  had  the  financial  backing  of  four- 
teen wealthy  men,  three  of  them — Mr.  Vanderbilt,  Mr. 
Kahn,  and  Mr.  Mackay — from  New  York.  They  were  not 
in  the  directorate,  but  were  represented  by  Mr.  Dippel. 
After  completing  a  season  of  ten  weeks  in  Chicago  in  1910 
the  company  went  to  Philadelphia,  its  name  undergoing  a 
change  in  transit,  and  gave  the  projected  season  there,  then 
coming  to  New  York  and  playing  at  the  Metropolitan  on 
eleven  successive  Tuesday  nights  and  one  Saturday  night, 
beginning  on  January  24,  1911.  Out  of  twelve  perform- 
ances eight  were  devoted  to  French  operas,  two  wholly  to 
English,  one  to  a  double  bill  of  English  and  an  Italian  para- 
phrase of  a  German  opera,  and  one  to  a  combination  of  the 
last  with  a  French  work.  The  English  opera  was  "  Na- 
toma,"  by  Joseph  Redding  and  Victor  Herbert ;  the  German 
work  was  Wolf-Ferrari's  "  Susannen's  Geheimniss,"  which, 
first  announced  in  French  as  "  Le  Secret  de  Susanne,"  was 
given  in  Italian  as  "  II  Segreto  di  Susanna."  The  French 
operas  in  the  list  were  "  Thais,"  "  Louise,"  "  Pelleas  et 
Melisande,"  "  Les  Contes  d'Hoffmann,"  "Carmen,"  "  Le 
Jongleur  de  Notre  Dame,"  and  "  Quo  Vadis,"  the  last  a 
novelty  in  New  York.  "  Thais  "  and  "  Louise  "  received 
two  performances  each.  Cleofonte  Campanini  conducted 
all  the  representations.  The  reception  given  to  the  company 
was  little  short  of  stupendous.  The  great  audience-room 
was  filled  on  the  first  night  from  floor  to  ceiling,  and  the 
audience  as  brilliant  in  appearance  as  imagination  could 
paint  it  and  as  keenly  alive  to  artistic  impressions  as  if  it 
had  been  starving  for  opera  for  years.  It  was  a  splendid 
tribute  to  the  singers,  the  operas,  and  (justice  demands  that 
it  be  said)  to  Mr.  Hammerstein.  The  singers  and  the  op- 


PRODUCTION  OF  "  NATOMA  "  227 

eras  were  all  fresh  from  the  Manhattan  Opera  House  and 
the  impression  was  that  of  a  Manhattan  season  somewhat 
delayed  and  interrupted.  There  were  a  few  newcomers  in 
the  list  of  singers;  Edmond  Warnery  replaced  M.  Perier 
and  Dalmores  as  Pelleas,  and  Marguerite  Sylva  Mme. 
Bressler-Gianoli  and  others  as  Carmen. 

"  Natoma,"  a  "  Grand  Opera  in  Three  Acts,"  whose  early 
history  has  been  told  in  these  memoirs,  had  its  first  appear- 
ance on  any  stage  in  Philadelphia  on  February  25,  1911.  I 
was  present  at  the  performance,  which  was  obviously  looked 
upon  as  a  momentous  event  upon  which  hung  everlasting 
things.  Philadelphia  had  till  then  been  lukewarm  toward 
the  child  whose  parentage  it  shared  with  Chicago,  but  on 
this  night  it  donned  its  gayest  garments,  crowded  the  vast 
theater  (renamed  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House),  and  at 
times  during  the  performance  it  fairly  seethed  with  excite- 
ment. It  was  plain  enough  to  the  initiated  that  the  climax 
of  enthusiasm  was  expected  by  those  who  were  prepared  to 
acknowledge  it  to  follow  the  close  of  the  curtain  on  the 
second  act,  which  marks  the  climax  of  the  play.  The  pub- 
lic's impatience,  however,  would  not  brook  delay  and  the 
audience  burned  its  powder  after  the  first  curtain,  thus  ne- 
cessitating the  employment  of  considerable  effort  and  arti- 
fice to  rekindle  a  sufficient  demonstration  to  bring  the 
authors,  conductor,  manager,  stage-manager,  and  singers 
before  the  curtain  according  to  schedule.  But  it  was  done, 
and,  judging  by  the  number  of  recalls,  the  success  of  the 
opera  was  overwhelming.  If  there  were  any  persons  in  the 
house  who  were  not  in  a  transcendental  state  of  joy  it  must 
have  been  those  who  are  accustomed  to  sit  in  solemn  silence 
in  the  dull,  dark  dock  of  judgment  and  who  had  not  been 
convinced  that  Messrs.  Redding  and  Herbert  had  solved  a 
great  problem,  or  that  a  monumental  work  of  art  had  been 
sent  down  the  ways  into  the  ocean  of  lasting  popularity. 

I  am,  perhaps,  attaching  more  importance  to  the  produc- 
tion of  "  Natoma  "  than  it  deserves;  but  a  discussion  of  it 


228  AN  EXAGGERATED  NOTION  OF  ITS  IMPORTANCE 

under  the  circumstances  forms  a  proper  part  of  a  picture 
of  the  times.  The  composer  had  confided  to  a  reporter  of 
the  Tribune  that  the  fate  of  English  opera  was  concerned 
in  an  appreciation  of  it.  In  Philadelphia  its  production 
seemed  an  achievement  of  national  significance.  In  New 
York  it  was  an  episode  in  the  movement  to  which  much 
attention  had  been  directed  by  the  Metropolitan  prize  com- 
petition, the  production  of  "  The  Pipe  of  Desire,"  the  prom- 
ised performance  of  Mr.  Arthur  Nevin's  "  Twilight,"  and 
the  agitation  of  the  musical  patriots  who  in  their  eagerness 
to  promote  opera  in  the  vernacular  seemed  to  be  behaving 
like  children  who  on  the  dawn  of  every  first  of  January 
look  out  of  their  windows  with  the  expectancy  of  seeing  a 
new  world.  A  society  for  the  promotion  of  national  opera 
had  been  talked  to  death  at  a  single  sitting,  yet  I  can  not 
recall  a  speech  or  newspaper  article  of  the  time  (except  my 
own)  which  betrayed  knowledge  of  some  of  the  most  obvi- 
ous facts  of  operatic  history.  Neither  composers  nor  sing- 
ers, neither  managers  nor  critics  who  took  part  in  the  ex- 
cited discussion  of  the  day  seemed  aware  that  more  than 
half  a  century  before  William  H.  Fry  had  written  English 
operas,  both  words  and  music,  one  of  which  at  least  had 
been  performed  in  New  York  and  also  in  Philadelphia,  the 
scene  of  the  latest  accouchement;  that  George  F.  Bristow's 
"  Rip  Van  Winkle  "  had  also  been  performed  at  the  Acad- 
emy of  Music  in  New  York  fifty-six  years  before,  and  that 
the  then  manager  of  the  now  venerable  institution  had  an- 
ticipated the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  by  offering  a 
prize  for  the  best  original  grand  opera  by  an  American  com- 
poser. Signer  Arditi,  too,  of  amiable  memory,  had  written 
"  La  Spia,"  based  on  Cooper's  novel,  an  American  subject 
like  that  of  Mr.  Bristow's  opera  and  Mr.  Walter  Dam- 
rosch's  "  Scarlet  Letter,"  which  latter  had  scarcely  had  time 
to  become  a  matter  of  history,  having  been  produced  only 
fifteen  years  before.  Kidlings  all  these  operas,  however, 
compared  with  two  operas  which  may  be  added  to  the 


THE  LIBRETTO  OF  THE  OPERA  229 

American  list  published  in  a  preceding  chapter  of  this  book. 
Pelissier,  a  Franco-American,  aided  and  abetted  by  a  Con- 
necticut Yankee  named  Elihu  Hubbard  Smith,  produced 
"  Edwin  and  Angelina  "  in  1796,  and  Benjamin  Carr  and 
William  Dunlap  achieved  a  run  with  their  opera,  "  The 
Archers,"  in  New  York  in  the  same  year.  As  for  perform- 
ances of  foreign  works  in  the  vernacular,  the  first  opera 
house  built  in  New  York  on  the  social  lines  of  the  Metro- 
politan was  practically  put  out  of  business  by  the  rivalry  of 
companies  who  sang  in  English,  but  (a  fact  worth  consider- 
ing) in  the  early  days  of  rivalry  between  English  and  Italian 
companies,  when  success  went  now  to  the  one  form,  now  to 
the  other,  it  was  the  singers  who  triumphed,  not  the  lan- 
guage. 

"Natoma"  came  to  New  York  on  February  28,  1911, 
three  days  after  its  production  in  Philadelphia,  and  was 
sung  by  the  same  people,  the  cast  being : 


Natoma  Mary  Garden 

Barbara    Lillian   Grenville 

Lieut.   Paul  Merrill   John  McCormack 

Don  Francisco Gustav  Huberdeau 

Father  Peralta   Hector  Duf ranne 

Juan  Bautista  Alvarado  Mario  Sammarco 

Pico  Arrnand  Crabbe 

Kagama    Constantin    Nicolay 

Jose  Castro   Frank  Preisch 

Chiquita  Gabrielle  Klink 

A  Voice  Minnie  Egener 

Sergeant  Desire  Defrere 


The  libretto  of  "  Natoma  "  was  written  by  an  American 
(I  wish  it  had  not  been)  and  its  music  by  a  man  of  Irish 
extraction  and  German  training.  They  are  a  popular  pair, 
and  they  deserv£  to  be,  but  that  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
case  brought  before  the  judgment  seat  by  their  opera. 
Neither  has  the  fact  that  the  story  of  "  Natoma  "  is  Ameri- 
can. Some  carping  critics  had  objected  that  it  is  not  Ameri- 


23o  AUTHENTICITY  OF  ITS  ELEMENTS 

can,  because  its  scene  is  laid  in  Southern  California  at  a 
time  when  that  part  of  the  country  was  still  under  Spanish 
domination.  But  perhaps  this  is  made  all  right  by  the  cir- 
cumstance that  the  heroine  is  an  Indian  and  the  so-called 
red  people  (though  they  are  not  red)  are  better  entitled  to 
be  called  Americans  than  any  other  race,  despite  the  fact 
that  they  may  not  be  autochthones  but  immigrants  from 
Asia.  Where  Mr.  Redding's  heroine  came  from  I  am  at  a 
loss  to  tell.  Speaking  in  the  meter  of  the  epic  poem  of  the 
Finns,  which  Mr.  Longfellow  has  fastened  upon  our  In- 
dians, she  would  fain  make  us  believe  that  she  is  queen  of  a 
tribe  indigenous  to  the  lower  part  of  California.  But  when 
she  invokes  her  people's  god  it  is  Manitou  to  whom  she 
prays — a  proceeding  about  as  natural  as  if  Mr.  Herbert 
were  to  ask  us  to  believe  that  his  great-grandfather  was 
wont  to  kneel  and  cry:  "O  me  taw  Boodh!"  in  his  devo- 
tions. However,  I  do  not  want  to  go  deeply  into  the  eth- 
nology of  Mr.  Redding's  book;  it  is  enough  that  I  believe 
the  abelone  to  be  edible  in  spite  of  the  legend  which  Natoma 
tells  about  in  a  sort  of  runic  rhyme.  I  accept  his  Spanish 
dances,  though  not  sure  that  the  Spanish  aristocracy  danced 
the  minuet  in  public  squares,  and  pretty  positive  that  they 
did  not  dance  it  as  Mary  Garden  and  Mr.  Sammarco  danced 
it.  I  am  also  somewhat  disturbed  by  other  incidents  de- 
signed to  illustrate  the  social  life  of  the  Spanish  residents 
of  California  a  century  ago.  I  do  not  believe  that  a  fond 
father  who  had  watched  long  and  lovingly  for  his  daughter 
would  permit  her  to  rush  out  into  the  moonlight  at  the  first 
tinkling  of  a  guitar  and  to  stay  there  long  enough  to  send 
one  wooer  about  his  business  and  throw  herself  into  the 
arms  of  another  whom  she  had  met  for  the  first  time  an 
hour  or  so  before.  This  does  not  seem  at  all  Spanish,  cer- 
tainly not  aristocratic ;  in  fact,  not  altogether  proper. 

The  heroine  of  "  Natoma  "  is  an  Indian  girl  who  shows 
her  love  for  an  American  naval  officer  by  killing  a  man  who 
is  seeking  to  abduct  her  mistress  in  order  that  that  mistress 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  OPERA         231 

may,  I  suppose,  marry  the  man  whom  the  Indian  girl  also 
loves.    How  it  all  comes  about  might  be  a  little  plainer  if 
the  opera  were  written  in  a  language  which  would  compel 
studious  application  for  an  hour  to  the  libretto.     As  it  is 
we  only  see  a  case  of  love  at  first  sight,  because  of  which 
an  Indian  girl  who  is  ten  times  as  interesting  as  her  rival 
is  jilted  and  who  is  so  far  from  being  swayed  by  ordinary 
human  feelings  that  she  stabs  a  man  to  death  for  attempt- 
ing to  do  what  he  could  not  possibly  have  done  under  the 
circumstances  surrounding  him.    He  seeks  to  abduct  a  lady 
seated  between  her  father  and  lover  in  a  public  place  at  a 
popular  festival,  with  a  squad  of   American  sailors  with 
drawn  cutlasses  in  the  background  and  the  plaza  crowded 
with  soldiers  and  other  persons  who  had  evidently  gathered 
together  to  do  the  things  which  opera  writers  expect  of  them 
under  such  conditions — offer  wares  for  sale,  sing,  dance, 
and  make  merry.     In  this  case,  however,  the  scene  is  par- 
ticularly interesting  because  of  its  exposition  of  the  genius 
of  the  librettist  in  particular.     We  know  it   from  many 
operas,  but  in  its  gay  Spanish  garb  it  recalls  most  vividly 
the  second  and  last  acts  of  "  Carmen."    It  is  thus  in  Bizet's 
opera  that  the  people  assemble  to  see  the  show  and  greet 
the  notables  as  they  arrive  in  pairs  or  groups.    All  is  ready 
for  the  entrance  of  the  toreador,  and  he  comes ;   but  he  is 
not  Escamillo  but  Pico.     If  he  were  Escamillo  of  the  last 
act  he  would  sing  of  his  love  for  Carmen;   if  he  were  the 
bullfighter  of  the  second  he  would  sing  a  resounding,  albeit 
somewhat  vulgar,  stave  about  one  of  his   feats  of  arms; 
being  Pico,  he  sings  a  song  which  as  illustrative  of  the  libret- 
tist's taste  and  skill  in  versification  cries  for  preservation. 
Here  it  is : 


Who  dares  the  bronco  wild  deTy 
Who  looks  the  mustang  in  the  eye? 

Fearless    and    bold, 

Their  master  behold ! 
Aie! 


232  MR.  HERBERT'S  MUSIC 

With  a  leap  from  the  ground 
To  the  saddle  in  a  bound, 

And  away  !     Aie ! 
See  where  the  bull  upon  his  knees 
Snorts  when  his  neck  we  tighter  squeeze! 

Wild  are  his  eyes ! 

Fiercely  he  dies ! 
Aie! 

Perhaps  a  drama  with  such  a  lyric  for  the  climax  of  its 
most  animated  scene  deserves  to  be  analyzed ;  if  so,  it  must 
be  done  by  a  braver  and  more  patient  writer  than  I.     Let 
me  hasten  to  say  something  about  the  music.     There  are 
many  differences  between  "  Natoma  "  and  the  Wild  West 
drama  with  which  an  Italian  composer  had  recently  en- 
dowed our  lyric  stage.    "  La  Fanciulla  del  West  "  was  more 
effective  without   Puccini's   music ;   "  Natoma "   would  be 
utterly  impossible  without  the  musical  integument  which 
Mr.  Herbert  gave  it.     The  people  would  move  about  like 
marionettes  without  motive,  uttering  words  which  would  be 
intolerable   to  people   of   sensibilities  because  they   would 
probably  be  understood.     Smothered  by  the  instrumental 
voices  of  Mr.  Herbert's  score,  their  inaninity  was  only  obvi- 
ous at  intervals,  and  the  play  achieved  the  semblance  of  a 
lyric  drama.     Mr.  Herbert  succeeded  better  than  I  could 
have  wished  at  times  in  divorcing  himself   from  himself. 
He  is  in  "  Natoma  "  not  the  carefree,  happy,  conventional 
melodist  that  he  is  in  his  best  operettas,  but  an  opera-maker 
of  the  modern  type  who  relies  upon  his  orchestra,  upon 
themes  harmonized  and  orchestrated  to  give  color,  life,  and 
meaning  to  persons  and  situations  not  deserving  of  such 
painstaking  skill  and  so  much  clever  craftsmanship.     He 
applies  local  color  when  he  thinks  it  will  be  effective.    He 
uses  Indian  themes  to  give  vitality  to  his  heroine,  and  he 
does  it  so  well  that  he  makes  Natoma  (who,  I  neglected  to 
state,  goes  to  a  nunnery  at  the  end)  a  figure  of  considerable 
interest.    He  indulges  in  exotic  and  esoteric  harmonies  when 
the  need  of  something  unusual  seizes  upon  him,  and  shows 


WOLF-FERRARI'S  "SECRET  OF  SUSANNE"         233 

that  here,  too,  his  is  anything  but  a  prentice  hand.  He 
tries,  and  generally  with  success,  to  avoid  the  frivolities  of 
the  manner  which  he  has  employed  in  his  popular  stage- 
pieces,  but  he  does  not  once  swing  himself  up  to  a  sustained 
and  passionate  cantilena.  Hence  the  last  pages  of  his  first 
act,  to  which  a  situation  is  violently  created  calling  for 
a  love-duet,  like  that  in  the  same  place  in  "  Madama 
Butterfly,"  fail  of  their  purpose ;  but  he  achieves  re- 
sults of  dignity  and  value  in  the  solemnities  of  the  final 
scene. 

Most  voluble  and  voluminous  of  all  the  managers  in  his 
advocacy  of  opera  in  English  both  before  and  after  the 
production  of  "  Natoma "  was  Mr.  Dippel ;  yet  the  first 
translation  of  which  he  made  use  was  not  one  into  English, 
but  into  Italian.  There  was  some  justification  for  taking 
"  Boris  Godounoff  "  out  of  its  original  tongue,  as  was  done 
at  a  later  date  by  the  Metropolitan  Company,  for  even  the 
polyglot  members  of  Mr.  Gatti's  organization  could  scarcely 
be  expected  to  use  the  Russian  language,  but  there  was  no 
excuse  for  a  French  performance  of  "  Tannhauser  "  by  Mr. 
Hammerstein  except  the  predominant  Gallicism  of  his 
forces,  and  none  at  all  for  the  performance  of  "  Susannen's 
Geheimniss  "  in  Italian.  There  are  only  three  characters  in 
the  arch  little  comedy,  and  one  of  them  (played  by  Fran- 
cesco Daddi)  is  a  mute;  a  second  (Countess  Gil)  was  sung 
by  Miss  Caroline  White,  an  American,  and  the  third  (Count 
Gil)  by  Signer  Sammarco,  who  had  mastered  enough  Eng- 
lish to  carry  a  part  in  "  Natoma."  Moreover,  the  play  is 
one  which  would  have  worn  an  English  dress  right  jauntily. 
Originally  it  was  a  French  farce.  Max  Kalbeck,  an  Aus- 
trian musical  writer,  turned  it  into  German,  and  the  German 
book  was  set  to  music  by  Ermanno  Wolf-Ferrari.  Three 
races  are  suggested  in  the  name  of  the  composer,  but  I  can 
not  stop  to  inquire  how  much  the  German,  how  much  the 
Italian,  or  how  much  the  Jewish  element  in  the  composer's 
physical  and  mental  constitution  have  to  do  with  the  music 


234         A  CLEVER  STORY  AND  INGENIOUS  MUSIC 

of  "  II  Segreto  di  Susanna,"  as  it  was  called  on  the  bills 
when  it  was  produced  at  the  Metropolitan  on  March  14, 
1911,  for  the  first  time  in  America.  It  sounded  delightful 
in  Italian;  it  would,  no  doubt,  have- sounded  a  little  more 
natural  in  German,  since  it  was  composed  to  German  words ; 
and  a  clever  translator  might  have  reconciled  the  public  to 
an  English  version  unless  Signor  Sammarco  had  offended 
its  ears  by  his  pronunciation.  The  secret  which  Susanna 
harbored,  keeping  it  from  her  husband,  was  that  she  smoked 
cigarettes.  The  Count  did  not  smoke ;  the  servant,  as  he 
makes  violent  assurance  by  dumbshow,  does  not  smoke; 
the  Countess  was  not  known  to  smoke,  yet  the  Count  smells 
smoke  in  her  drawing-room  and  even  clinging  to  her  hair 
and  clothing.  Sharply  catechized,  the  Countess  admits  that 
she  has  a  secret  and  that  it  relates  to  something  with  which 
she  whiles  away  the  lonely  hours  which  the  Count  spends  at 
his  club.  A  lover,  of  course,  concludes  the  Count.  He  flies 
into  a  rage,  smashes  the  furniture,  and,  dashing  out  of  the 
house,  leaves  the  Countess  in  despair.  She  finds  consola- 
tion in  a  cigarette  after  locking  the  door.  But  the  Count 
^returns  unexpectedly,  his  fury  still  upon  him,  and,  finding 
the  door  locked,  breaks  down  the  barrier.  Susanna,  caught 
flagrante  delicto,  hides  her  cigarette  behind  her  back.  He 
seizes  her  roughly  and  burns  his  hand.  The  secret  is  out — 
confession,  mutual  forgiveness,  and  the  Count,  enrolling 
himself  among  the  devotees  of  Dame  Nicotine,  takes  a  light 
from  his  wife's  cigarette.  The  dumb  servant,  who  has  been 
in  Susanna's  secret,  fires  his  tobacco  as  the  curtain  closes. 
From  the  beginning  the  intermezzo  is  highly  enjoyable, 
largely  because  of  its  sprightly  comedy,  but  chiefly  because 
of  the  exquisite  music,  full  of  Mozartian  melodiousness 
and  also  Mozartian  characterization  supplemented  by  mod- 
ern ingenuity  in  delineation.  Quite  marvelous  is  the  skill 
with  which  the  composer  turns  smoke  into  music  or  music 
into  smoke  as  one  chooses  to  look  at  it.  With  this  work 
Wolf -Ferrari  won  as  righteous  a  place  in  the  American 


ERMANNO  WOLF-FERRARI 


"QUO  VADIS?"  MADE  INTO  AN  OPERA  235 

lyric  theater  as  he  did  in  its  concert-rooms  with  "  La  Vita 
Nuova." 

It  was  rather  singular  that  the  removal  of  Mr.  Dippel's 
organization  from  the  bustling  metropolis  of  the  Middle 
West  to  the  Eastern  city  popularly  supposed  to  be  extremely 
deliberate  of  action  seemed  to  bring  to  it  an  access  of  en- 
ergy. Most  of  the  operas  in  its  Chicago  repertory  were  not 
new,  but  needed  only  to  be  revamped;  but  in  Philadelphia 
two  works  new  to  the  country  were  called  into  active  being, 
"  Natoma  "  and  "  Quo  Vadis  ?  "  The  latter,  an  opera  in  five 
acts,  book  by  Henri  Cain,  after  the  historical  novel  by  Sien- 
kiewicz,  music  by  Jean  Nougues,  first  performed  in  the 
City  of  Brotherly  Love  on  March  25,  was  brought  forward 
at  the  Metropolitan  on  April  4,  1911,  with  no  significant 
change  in  its  cast  except  the  substitution  of  Signer  Guarda- 
bassi  for  M.  Charles  Dalmores,  a  substitution  which  weak- 
ened the  performance  materially.  Among  the  actors  were 
two  brothers,  Walter  and  Arthur  Wheeler,  herculean  young 
Philadelphians,  who  assumed  the  characters  of  the  gladia- 
tors, Ursus  and  Croton,  to  humor  themselves  and  the  social 
set  to  which  they  belonged.  The  cast  at  the  Metropolitan 
was  as  follows : 

Lygie    Alice  Zepilli 

Eunice    Lillian    Grenville 

Poppe Eleanore  Cisneros 

Petrone   Maurice  Renaud 

Neron  Vittorio  Arimondi 

Vinicius    Mario   Guardabassi 

Chilon   Hector  Duf ranne 

Pierre  Gustav  Huberdeau 

Sporus   Armand  Crabbe 

Demas Constantin  Nicolay 

The  Young  Nerva  Emilio  Venturini 

Iras   Marie  Cavan 

Myriam   Clotilde  Bressler-Gianoli 

Conductor,  Cleofonte  Campanini 

Sienkiewicz's  historical  novel  was  tremendously  popular 
when  it  was  first  published,  and  it  still  holds  the  imagina- 


236  M.  CAIN'S  TREATMENT  OF  THE  NOVEL 

tion  of  multitudes  in  thrall.  It  stirred  the  devotion  of  re- 
ligious devotees,  captured  the  fancy  of  lovers  of  the  pic- 
turesque, and  exacted  an  interest  by  no  means  ignoble  of 
the  students  of  classic  literature  and  history.  What  the 
pseudo-historical  novel  did  in  its  way  M.  Henri  Cain's  dra- 
matization repeats  by  means  of  ingenious  use  of  theatrical 
and  lyrical  devices.  The  romance  covers  too  large  a  terri- 
tory to  be  embraced  in  a  single  play,  even  if  the  play  were 
not  made  sluggish  by  music,  and  M.  Cain  has  presented  a 
series  of  incidents  rather  than  a  closely  knit  and  logically 
developed  tragedy.  But  he  has  done  his  work  with  great 
skill,  a  large  element  of  which  is  exhibited  by  the  manner 
in  which,  while  making  the  persecution  of  the  Christians 
under  Nero  the  main  theme  of  the  opera,  he  has  blended 
with  it  the  charm  of  the  scenes  in  which  Petronius  and 
Vinicius  are  disclosed  as  heroes  of  romantic  love.  He  has 
not  been  a  mere  transcriber  or  paraphrast,  but  has  disclosed 
himself  as  a  poet  and  also  a  scholar  in  his  use  of  classical 
and  Biblical  material.  Unfortunately,  the  desire  for  a  vast 
and  varied  spectacle  has  persuaded,  perhaps  compelled,  him 
to  introduce  a  multitude  of  personages  and  incidents  worthy 
of  better  treatment  as  inconsequential  stalking-horses,  and 
thus  marred  the  play  in  the  eyes  of  historical  students.  In 
this  he  has  been  helped  obviously  against  his  own  will,  as 
any  reader  of  the  book  in  the  original  or  the  translation  can 
see  by  the  uncouth  treatment  to  which  much  of  it  was  sub- 
jected by  the  stage-manager. 

For  instance,  how  came  the  elephantine  basso  Arimondi 
to  be  cast  for  the  part  of  Nero?  The  composer  wrote  his 
music  for  a  tenor  and  it  had  to  be  altered  to  bring  it  within 
the  range  of  Arimondi's  dracontine  voice.  Had  M.  Nou- 
gues  desired  to  be  strictly  within  historical  lines  he  would 
have  given  the  part  to  a  baritone,  for  that  in  greatest  like- 
lihood was  the  character  of  voice  which  the  tyrant  possessed. 
It  was  naturally  weak  and  of  a  rude  quality.  Quamquam 
exiqua  vocis  et  fusees,  says  Suetonius  of  him.  I  have  always 


NERO  AS  A  MUSICIAN  237 

fancied  that  the  historians  have  not  treated  Nero  fairly 
either  as  poet  or  singer.  He  certainly  studied  faithfully 
and  industriously  under  Terpnos,  the  finest  kitharist  of  his 
day,  and  it  is  while  describing  his  virtues,  not  his  vices,  that 
Suetonius  says  that  his  musical  performances  gave  such  joy 
to  the  people  that  public  prayers  were  appointed  to  be  put 
up  to  the  gods  on  that  account  and  "  the  verses  which  had 
been  publicly  read  were,  after  being  written  in  gold  letters, 
consecrated  to  Jupiter  Capitolinus."  It  is  true  that  there 
were  some  persons  who,  rather  than  hear  him  sing,  slipped 
privately  over  the  walls  when  the  gates  were  shut  or  coun- 
terfeiting themselves  dead  were  carried  out  as  to  their  fu- 
nerals. But  these  may  have  been  either  poor  judges  or 
prejudiced  and  satiated  individuals  like  Petronius  Arbiter 
himself,  who  in  "Quo  Vadis?"  sends  the  Caesar  a  letter 
counseling  him  to  sing  no  more  and  then  dispatches  himself 
before  Nero  can  send  the  Praetorian  Guards  to  lay  hands 
upon  him.  This  is  not  quite  so  much  license  as  Barbier 
took  when  in  his  libretto  for  Rubinstein's  "  Nero  "  he  had 
Thraseas  interrupt  the  imperial  singer  while  he  is  singing 
"  Of  the  Grief  and  Love  of  Iphigeneia,"  the  disturber  pre- 
ferring to  suffer  death  rather  than  hear  more  of  the  song, 
which,  like  all  that  Nero  sang,  had  at  least  a  noble  theme. 
M.  Cain  utilizes  the  same  dramatic  motive,  but  brings  it  into 
a  little  greater  consonance  with  history,  for  the  sarcastic  let- 
ter of  which  we  hear  the  conclusion,  in  the  last  act  of  the 
opera,  is  plainly  intended  to  represent  the  famous  Satyricon 
which  the  veritable  Petronius  wrote  for  Nero's  chastise- 
ment. 

But  we  must  not  lose  ourselves  in  these  historical  excur- 
sions, pleasant  as  they  may  be  and  helpful  to  an  understand- 
ing of  the  opera.  However,  if  it  was  in  bad  taste  and 
worse  judgment  in  Mr.  Dippel  and  Signer  Campanini  to 
turn  a  rough  baritone  into  a  rougher  bass,  it  was  inexcusable 
to  present  Nero  in  the  Falstaffian  dimensions  of  Arimondi. 
Those  who  remember  Sienkievvicz's  romance  will  easily  be 


238  DRAMATIC  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  OPERA 

able  to  reconstruct  the  story  of  the  opera  from  a  few  hints 
which  I  shall  give  with  interpolated  remarks  on  the  music. 
There  are  five  acts,  one  of  them  (the  fourth)  being  divided 
into  two  scenes  for  the  sake  of  dramatic  contrast.  The  first 
and  fifth  acts  are  in  effect  prologue  and  epilogue  to  the 
drama  which  is  developed  in  the  second,  third,  and  fourth 
acts.  This  idea  is  more  than  hinted  at  in  the  titles  given 
to  the  opening  and  closing  scenes.  The  first  is  "  Eunice's 
Kiss."  Its  chief  disclosure  is  the  love  of  the  Grecian  slave, 
Eunice,  for  her  master,  Petronius,  who,  when  the  play 
opens,  is  still  arbiter  elegantiontm  and  the  director  of  Nero's 
pleasures  exactly  as  he  figures  in  history.  Incidentally,  it 
introduces  Vinicius,  who  tells  of  his  passion  for  Lygia  and 
refuses  to  be  comforted  with  the  gift  of  Eunice  which  Pe- 
tronius attempts  to  force  upon  him,  all  ignorant  of  her  love 
for  him.  That  love  is  poetically  disclosed  at  the  end  of  the 
act  when,  being  left  alone,  she  embraces  the  statue  of  her 
master  and  presses  passionate  kisses  upon  its  marble  lips. 
We  are  also  introduced  to  the  personage  who  is  most  active 
in  promoting  the  progress  of  the  drama — Chilo,  a  busybody 
and  gossip-monger,  dealer  in  amulets,  spy  and  mischief- 
maker  generally.  There  is  much  hymning  of  Venus  by  the 
two  female  slaves,  Iras  and  Eunice,  and  exchange  of  confi- 
dences between  Vinicius  and  Petronius,  at  the  conclusion  of 
which  the  latter  presages  the  outcome  of  the  drama  so  far 
as  he  is  concerned.  Some  day,  the  Arbiter  confesses,  he 
will  grow  weary  of  life.  Then  will  he  tell  Nero  the  truth 
about  his  artistic  performances  which  now  he  is  lauding, 
and  die  amid  scenes  of  evening  loveliness.  Incidentally, 
Chilo  is  retained  by  Vinicius  to  discover  the  meaning  of  a 
symbol  which  Lygia  had  drawn  in  the  sand — the  figure  of  a 
fish.  The  symbol  is  one  with  which  all  students  of  classical 
antiquity  are  familiar.*  What  Chilo's  inquiries  into  the 

*  Among  the  primitive  Christians  the  fish  was  a  symbol  of  Christ, 
the  letters  of  its  name  in  Greek,  ICHTHYS,  forming  the  initials 
of  the  words  in  the  brief  but  comprehensive  creed:  Iseos  CHristos, 
THeou  Yios  Soter— Jesus  Christ,  God's  Son,  Saviour. 


THE  COMPOSER'S  MUSIC  239 

meaning  of  this  symbol  leads  to  is  disclosed  in  the  second, 
third,  and  fourth  acts.  The  fifth  deals  again  with  the  loves 
of  Eunice  for  Petronius  and  Vinicius  for  Lygia,  and  their 
different  outcomes — the  suicide  of  the  first  pair  and  the 
escape  to  happiness  of  the  second.  In  both  acts  poet  and 
composer  have  put  forth  their  finest  efforts,  M.  Cain  by 
creating  an  exquisite  atmosphere  with  the  aid  of  a  poem 
by  Catullus,  and  M.  Nougues  by  creating  music  which, 
though  imitative  of  Massenet,  languid  and  sensuous,  is  still 
appropriate,  redolent  of  the  scenes,  and  inoffensive  to  good 
taste  and  judgment.  In  other  parts  of  the  opera  he  is  just 
as  eclectic  while  striving  for  greater  individuality,  but  does 
not  escape  triviality  and  commonplace ;  while  in  striving 
to  characterize  by  typical  themes,  especially  in  the  case  of 
Chilo,  he  is  nothing  short  of  vulgar.  Nero's  orgies  are  ac- 
companied, moreover,  by  the  cheapest  kind  of  circus  music. 
These  orgies  fill  up  nearly  all  of  the  second  act,  the  climax 
of  which  is  found  in  the  burning  of  Rome.  The  scene  is  an 
impressive  one,  but  the  conflagration  is  nothing  more  than 
a  lurid  illumination  of  the  background.  The  song  which 
Nero  wishes  to  sing  is  interrupted  by  a  mob  that  demands 
the  death  of  the  tyrant.  Nero  asks  two  of  his  sycophants 
to  sacrifice  themselves  for  his  sake,  but  they  refuse.  Then 
Petronius  leads  out  the  Praetorian  Guards  and  silences  the 
revolt,  while  dancers  fill  the  stage  and  wriggle  and  writhe 
in  a  futile  effort  to  represent  one  of  the  corybantic  scenes 
with  which  the  era  of  Rome's  profligacy  is  associated. 

The  third  act  shows  a  bustling  picture  on  the  banks  of  the 
Tiber.  Amid  many  incidents  Chilo  pursues  his  effort  to 
learn  the  meaning  of  the  mystic  symbol  and  at  length  suc- 
ceeds. Vinicius  attempts  to  carry  off  Lygia  with  the  help 
of  a  gladiator,  but  Ursus,  Lygia's  gigantic  slave,  hurls  the 
gladiator  into  the  river.  In  this  scene  the  Apostle  Peter 
appears  to  the  Christian  congregation  and  relates  the  inci- 
dent which  lives  in  the  tradition  which  gave  title  to  book 
and  opera — the  meeting  between  Peter  and  Christ  on  the 


240  AN  EXCESS  OF  HYMNING 

Appian  Way,  the  Apostle's  question,  "  Whither  goest  Thou, 
Lord  ?  "  and  the  answer  which  sent  the  Apostle  back  to  his 
persecuted  flock.  The  fourth  act  brings  to  a  culmination 
the  religious  element  in  the  play.  It  is  divided  into  two 
scenes,  obviously  for  the  sake  of  dramatic  contrast,  though, 
since  the  composer  felt  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  connect 
the  scenes  with  an  orchestral  interlude  which  continues  the 
mood  of  the  Christian  canticles  of  which  by  this  time  every 
ear  must  have  long  been  weary,  the  effect  is  most  monoto- 
nous and  deplorable. 


Pious  orgies,  pious  airs, 
Decent  sorrows,  decent  pray'rs, 


are  always  welcome  for  a  change  even  in  an  opera,  but 
when  the  dramatic  interest  is  centered  on  rapid  alternation 
of  exciting  incidents  and  variety  of  scene  they  become  tedi- 
ous if  not  vexatious.  It  is  true  that  the  librettist  seems  to 
have  been  as  desirous  as  the  novelist  to  keep  the  motive  in 
view  which  finds  expression  in  the  title  of  the  work,  but  a 
theatrical  audience  expecting  a  series  of  pictures  of  life  in 
Rome  when  the  empire  was  sunk  to  its  lowest  level  of 
wicked  debauchery  can  well  get  along  without  so  much 
hymning  as  MM.  Cain  and  Nougues  indulge  in.  In  the 
first  of  the  two  scenes  the  Christians,  whose  hiding-place 
has  been  discovered  and  betrayed  by  Chilo,  are  herded  in 
the  bellunarium  of  the  Coliseum  and  subjected  to  indignities 
of  many  kinds.  The  second  shows  a  portion  of  the  arena 
in  the  circus  and  the  imperial  box.  A  gladiator  is  slain  and 
dragged  out.  Ursus  is  brought  forward  to  do  battle  with 
the  aurochs  and  goes  behind  the  scenes  to  do  the  deed  which 
forms  the  most  exciting  incident  in  the  novel,  while  in  the 
opera  the  spectators  tell  of  the  progress  and  outcome  of  the 
battle — a  fatuous  dramatic  device  always,  but  here  pecu- 
liarly so,  though  I  must  confess  its  necessity.  The  giant 
presents  himself  before  Nero's  box  with  the  maiden  whom 
he  has  rescued  from  the  horns  of  the  wild  animal  in  his 


THE  FINAL  CATASTROPHE  241 

arms  and  asks  her  liberation  as  a  reward  for  the  deed. 
Vinicius  rushes  into  the  arena  and  claims  her  as  his  wife. 
Nero,  in  a  rage,  commands  the  massacre  of  all  the  Chris- 
tians who  have  been  driven  into  the  arena.  Chilo,  con- 
science-stricken at  the  awful  result  of  his  deed,  denounces 
Nero  as  the  author  of  Rome's  destruction.  There  is  a 
popular  revolt  and  a  battle  between  the  people  and  the 
Praetorian  Guard.  Petronius  fulfils  his  destiny  as  he  had 
foreseen  and  predicted  it.  With  Eunice  at  his  side,  sur- 
rounded by  voluptuous  pleasures,  he  permits  a  physician  to 
open  his  veins  and  hers,  and  together  they  sink  softly  into 
death. 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  INTERESTING  FEATURES  OF  1911-12— SOME  EXCELLENT  AD- 
DITIONS TO  THE  METROPOLITAN  FORCES— THUILLE'S  "  LOBE- 
TANZ  "—CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MATINEE  AUDIENCES— USE  OF 
WAGNERIAN  MATERIALS— THUILLE  AND  HIS  MUSIC— OUT-OF- 
DOORS  OPERATIC  FESTIVALS— WOLF-FERRARI'S  "  LE  DONNE 
CURIOSE"— A  VISIT  FROM  THE  COMPOSER— DIVIDED  AL- 
LEGIANCES, RACIALLY  AND  MUSICALLY—"  I  GIOJELLI  DELLA 
MADONNA  "—VISIT  FROM  THE  PHILADELPHIA  COMPANY- 
MASSENET'S  "  CENDRILLON  "—CINDERELLA  AS  AN  OPERATIC 
HEROINE— BLECH'S  "  VERSIEGELT "— A  DIVERTING  COMEDY 
WITH  BRASS  ORNAMENTS— PRODUCTION  OF  THE  PRIZE  OPERA 
"MONA"— WANT  OF  OPERATIC  SUITABILITY  IN  A  STRONG 
AND  BEAUTIFUL  DRAMATIC  POEM— THE  PROVINCE  OF  MUSIC 
IN  A  DRAMA— OBSTACLES  PLACED  BY  THE  POET  TO  SYM- 
PATHY FOR  HIS  HEROINE— PROFESSOR  PARKER'S  MUSIC- 
EARLIER  ACHIEVEMENTS  OF  THE  COMPOSER— CHARACTERIZA- 
TION BY  MEANS  OF  TONALITY— THEMES  AS  MUSICAL  SYM- 
BOLS—MONTEVERDE'S  " ORFEO  " 

THE  story  of  Mr.  Gatti's  fourth  season  as  manager  of  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  Company  would  have  little  interest 
were  it  not  for  the  new  operas  produced  in  the  course  of 
its  twenty-two  weeks  from  November  13,  1911,  to  April 
13,  1912,  and  the  significance,  never  fully  realized  because 
never  pursued  to  its  legitimate  conclusion,  of  the  experi- 
ment to  habilitate  opera  in  the  vernacular  by  native  authors. 
It  is  but  right  that  a  generous  portion  of  this  chapter  should 
be  devoted  to  the  production  of  the  opera  which  was  the 
outcome  of  the  competition  described  in  Chapter  VII  of 
this  book.  If  management,  critics,  and  public  had  been 
gifted  with  prophetic  knowledge  at  the  time,  the  production 
of  "  Mona  "  should  have  loomed  up  as  an  incident  of  na- 
tional and  enduring  importance.  But  there  was  no  premo- 

242 


SOME  NOTEWORTHY  DEBUTS  243 

nition  in  1911  of  the  throes  and  agonies  which  were  impend- 
ing for  the  world,  and  what  should  have  been  a  nascent  day 
for  America's  lyric  drama  was  permitted  to  pass  as  a  mere 
episode  of  the  season,  interesting,  indeed,  but  of  no  par- 
ticular influence  upon  the  mind  or  conscience  of  the  Metro- 
politan management.  The  novelty  excited  more  curiosity 
than  any  of  its  five  companions,  but  it  endured  no  longer. 
Two  of  these  five  other  novelties  were  brought  to  New 
York  by  the  Philadelphia-Chicago  Company,  which  gave 
representations  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  on  Tues- 
day evenings  from  February  13,  1912,  to  March  19,  in- 
clusive. 

There  were  a  few  notable  additions  to  the  company's 
forces  in  the  season.  Margaret  Matzenauer,  a  contralto 
with  a  voice  of  great  beauty  and  opulence,  effected  her  debut 
at  the  opening  performance  as  Amneris  in  "  Aida  " ;  Her- 
mann Weil,  baritone,  his  as  Kurwenal  in  "  Tristan  und 
Isolde"  on  November  17;  Putnam  Griswold,  basso,  his  as 
Hagen  in  "  Gotterdammerung  "  on  November  23,  and  Hein- 
rich  Hensel,  tenor,  his  as  Lohengrin  on  December  22.  It 
is  noteworthy  that  all  of  these  artists  were  recruited  to 
strengthen  the  German  ranks  of  the  company,  though  Mr. 
Griswold,  who  had  won  distinction  at  the  Court  Opera  in 
Berlin,  was  an  American.  Three  representations  in  the  sea- 
son's list  were  given  up  wholly  to  the  Russian  Ballet,  which 
also  filled  the  second  part  of  several  evenings  at  which  short 
operas  were  performed.  An  incident  which  deserves  record 
was  the  performance  in  concert  style  of  Monteverde's 
"  Orfeo  "  on  the  last  Sunday  night  of  the  season.  All  the 
rest  which  is  essential  to  the  season's  history  may  be  read 
in  the  page  devoted  to  it  in  the  Appendix,  and  we  may  there- 
fore now  direct  our  attention  to  a  study  of  the  new  operas. 
The  first  of  these  was  "  Lobetanz,"  in  three  acts,  book  by 
Otto  Julius  Bierbaum,  music  by  Ludwig  Thuille,  brought 
forward  on  the  first  Saturday  afternoon  of  the  season,  No- 
vember 17,  1911. 


244  THUILLE'S  OPERA  "LOBETANZ" 

Lobetanz,  a  strolling  minstrel,  comes  upon  a  bevy  of 
maidens  who  are  making  preparations  for  a  festival  of  song 
commanded  by  the  king  in  the  hope  of  restoring  to  health  a 
daughter  who  is  gone  into  a  melancholy  decline.  The  maid- 
ens urge  the  singing  fiddler  to  enter  the  lists  of  contestants, 
but  he  is  meanly  clad  and  tries  to  escape,  whereupon  they 
tell  him  of  the  sad  plight  of  the  princess  and  twine  gar- 
lands of  roses  about  him  to  hide  his  rags.  In  the  contest 
the  minstrels  fall  to  quarreling  like  those  in  "  Tannhauser." 
Into  the  midst  of  the  discord  fall  the  tones  of  Lobetanz's 
fiddle  coming  from  an  arbor  in  which  he  had  concealed  him- 
self. The  princess  commands  his  presence  and  a  song,  but 
when  he  sings  she  is  so  deeply  moved  that  she  swoons.  A 
tumult  follows,  Lobetanz  is  accused  of  having  practised  the 
black  art  upon  the  fair  lady,  but  he  eludes  those  who  would 
seize  him.  The  princess,  who  has  lost  her  heart  to  the  un- 
known singer,  wanders  through  the  forest  and  finds  him 
near  the  hut  of  a  forester.  There  he  had  taken  refuge  and 
fallen  asleep  in  a  favorite  seat  of  the  princess's  in  the 
boughs  of  a  gigantic  linden  tree.  He  tells  the  forester  of  a 
dream  that  a  raven  had  stolen  his  cap,  and  the  forester 
informs  him  that  it  was  more  than  a  dream,  for  he  had  seen 
the  bird  flying  with  the  cap  towards  the  gloomy  machine  on 
gallows-hill.  Lobetanz  resumes  his  musings  and  is  dream- 
ing of  his  mother  when  the  princess  comes  to  him.  While 
they  are  exchanging  professions  of  love  the  king  enters 
with  his  train  of  huntsmen  and  Lobetanz  is  taken.  Now 
he  is  tried  for  witchcraft  and  condemned  to  death.  Again 
the  princess  falls  ill,  and  he  sits  in  prison  among  weird  and 
lewd  companions  who  jeer  at  him  for  his  presumption  in 
wooing  a  king's  daughter,  and  make  mock  of  death  in  a 
grim  pantomime.  Comes  the  headsman  to  lead  him  to  the 
gibbet  on  the  hillside.  Curious  folk  gather  around  to  see 
him  die,  believing  that  his  blood  will  release  the  princess 
from  the  wicked  charm  which  binds  her.  Her  moribund 
body  is  brought  before  him  and  a  last  permission  to  speak 


THE  ATTITUDE  OF  AFTERNOON  AUDIENCES      245 

is  vouchsafed  him.  He  asks  for  his  violin,  and  as  he  plays 
upon  it  a  ruddy  glow  suffuses  the  cheeks  of  the  supposedly 
dead  woman.  Now  the  king  speaks :  not  only  shall  his  life 
be  given  to  the  minstrel  if  he  restore  the  princess  to  life, 
but  even  her  hand  in  marriage.  Lobetanz  plays  a  dance- 
tune,  and  king,  princess,  headsman,  and  common  folk 
fall  to  capering.  In  the  midst  of  the  mad  dance  the 
raven  flies  into  the  assembly  and  drops  the  minstrel's 
cap  upon  the  gallows-arm.  It  is  not  an  omen  of  death, 
but  a  symbol  of  marriage  and  connubial  bliss.  Cur- 
tain. 

A  new  opera,  and  that  a  German  one,  produced  at  a  Sat- 
urday matinee,  the  first  of  the  season.  It  seemed  as  if  there 
must  be  a  peculiar  significance  in  such  a  circumstance;  but 
the  purpose  of  the  management  was  too  deep  to  be  easily 
divined.  The  proceeding  was  quite  as  revolutionary  as  that 
of  Mr.  Grau  many  years  before  when  he  opened  a  season 
with  "  Tristan  und  Isolde,"  though  custom  seemed  to  have 
set  apart  "  Faust "  or  "  Romeo  et  Juliette  "  for  that  func- 
tion. Maybe  it  was  a  tribute  to  the  German  contingent 
among  the  opera's  patrons ;  it  was  gracious  to  think  so. 
But  it  is  an  old  story  that  the  Saturday  afternoon  audiences 
at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  have  for  decades  accepted 
any  and  every  thing  offered  to  them  with  grateful  and  in- 
discriminate gladness.  They  are  not  to  be  frightened  into 
non-attendance  by  an  opera  that  has  grown  musty  with  age 
and  threadbare  with  repetition  so  long  as  the  gods  and  god- 
desses of  their  idolatry  take  part  in  the  performance,  and 
they  can  with  equal  certainty  be  relied  on  to  welcome  a  new 
work  if  for  no  other  reason  than  that  it  is  presented  on  a 
Saturday  afternoon.  The  audience  that  heard  "  Lobetanz  " 
was  more  than  kind  in  its  acceptance  of  the  work,  but  after 
it  had  been  subjected  to  the  rule  of  giving  every  novelty  a 
representation  on  each  subscription  night  in  a  week  and 
was  never  heard  of  more  I  am  at  a  loss  to  know  what  the 
public  thought  of  it.  No  doubt  the  box-office  spoke  the  sen- 


246    WAGNER'S  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  "  LOBETANZ  " 

tence  which  has  been  pronounced  on  the  majority  of  novel- 
ties produced  in  the  course  of  the  period  with  which  these 
memoirs  are  concerned.  Certain  it  is  that  the  final  closing 
of  the  curtain  on  the  afternoon  must  have  left  many  minds 
in  a  state  of  bewilderment.  The  opera  began  as  if  it  were 
going  to  appeal  to  the  tastes  and  emotions  habituated  to 
romantic  plays.  The  fact  that  it  was  reminiscent  of  many 
things  which  opera-lovers  knew  well  and  liked  well  worked 
no  harm  to  it.  What  if  Klingsor's  Flower  Maidens  and  the 
interloper  Parisfal  appeared  in  the  first  act  and  after  them 
a  dozen  or  fifteen  Beckmessers  sang  in  grotesque  mimicry 
of  the  Wartburg  minstrels?  Even  matinee-folk  take  kindly 
to  "Parisfal,"  "  Tannhauser,"  and  "Die  Meistersinger." 
With  such  echoes  the  opera  began  only  to  mount  the 
cothurnus  of  grewsome,  grisly,  ghastly  tragedy  in  its  later 
scenes ;  still  it  was  possible  to  enjoy  the  skill  with  which  the 
poet  and  composer  used  the  materials  of  Wagner.  But 
when,  after  its  most  effective  musical  scene,  it  ran  out  into 
the  banal  mood  of  the  waltzing  operettas  of  the  Vienna  type 
those  who  were  most  desirous  to  like  the  work  were  most 
confounded. 

Thuille's  music  was  an  unknown  quantity  in  America 
when  "  Lobetanz  "  came  to  run  its  brief  career.  Before 
then  I  can  recall  seeing  only  one  of  his  compositions  in  the 
larger  forms  listed  on  an  American  programme.  It  was  an 
overture  entitled  "  Romantic,"  which  was  originally  de- 
signed as  an  introduction  for  the  composer's  first  opera, 
"  Theuerdank/'  and  the  only  portion  of  that  work  which 
found  its  way  into  print.  Yet  Thuille  had  filled  a  consider- 
able place  in  German  music  when,  still  a  comparatively 
young  man,  he  died  in  1907.  He  was  a  Tyrolean  by  birth 
who  finished  the  music  studies  begun  under  the  care  of  his 
father,  an  enthusiastic  amateur,  and  other  teachers  in  Upper 
Austria,  at  the  Hochschule  in  Munich.  He  concluded  his 
course  at  that  institution  in  the  year  in  which  Horatio  Par- 
ker, whose  name  is  linked  with  his  in  the  record  of  the 


CAREER  OF  THE  COMPOSER  247 

season,  began  his.  After  a  short  absence  from  the  Bavarian 
capital  he  returned  to  it,  and  teaching,  composing,  and  con- 
ducting a  singing  society  he  remained  there  till  his  death. 
There,  too,  he  formed  a  friendship  with  Richard  Strauss, 
who  produced  some  of  his  early  orchestral  music  at  Mann- 
heim. Alexander  Ritter,  who  had  a  hand  in  the  working 
out  of  Strauss's  destiny,  persuaded  him  to  undertake  oper- 
atic composition  and  wrote  for  him  the  libretto  of  "  Theuer- 
dank,"  which  had  a  performance  in  Munich,  but  made  a 
failure.  Then  Bierbaum  wrote  "  Lobetanz  "  for  him  in  1896 
and  "  Gugelino  "  in  1900.  The  former  opera  reached  Berlin 
in  1898  and  took  a  firm  hold  on  the  German  stage.  In 
August,  1911,  three  months  before  its  American  premiere, 
it  was  performed  in  an  open-air  theater  at  Zoppot,  an  idyllic 
spot  in  the  midst  of  a  forest.  Here  a  clearing  intended  for 
the  production  of  children's  plays  had  been  turned  into  a 
large  theater  in  which  for  three  years,  under  the  trees,  with 
the  forest  providing  most  of  the  scenery,  operas  were  given 
very  much  in  the  style  of  the  High  Jinks  conducted  by  the 
Bohemian  Club  of  San  Francisco.  There  were  then  in 
Germany  many  idealists  who  dreamed  that  out  of  such  idyl- 
lic representations  there  might  grow  a  new  form  of  lyric 
drama.  Such  a  consummation  is  not  impossible  under  the 
redwood  trees  of  California. 

On  January  3,  1912,  the  Metropolitan  Company  brought 
out  the  second  novelty  of  the  season,  Ermanno  Wolf-Fer- 
rari's "  Le  Donne  Curiose,"  an  opera  in  three  acts,  which 
had  its  first  performance  in  America.  Like  its  composer, 
the  opera  is  half  German,  half  Italian  in  its  history,  though 
it  is  all  Italian  in  its  subject  and  style.  The  libretto  was 
adapted  from  the  comedy  of  the  same  name  by  Goldoni; 
was  composed  to  the  German  translated  text,  no  doubt  with 
the  Italian  words  in  view ;  was  published  in  Germany  and 
there  had  its  first  performance — a  hybrid,  but  not  a  mongrel. 
Signor  Toscanini  conducted  the  performance,  and  the  parts 
were  distributed  as  follows : 


248  "LE  DONNE  CURIOSE" 

Ottavio    Adamo   Didur 

Beatrice   Jeanne  Maubourg 

Rosaura  Geraldine  Farrar 

Florindo   Hermann  Jadlowker 

Pantalone  Antonio  Pini-Corsi 

Lelio   Antonio  Scotti 

Leandro    Angelo   Bada 

Colombine   Bella  Alten 

Eleanora Rita  Fornia 

Arlecchino Andrea  de  Segurola 

Asdrubale v Pietro  Audisio 

Almoro  Lembert  Murphy 

Alvise Charles  Hargreaves 

Lunardo    Vincenzo   Reschiglian 

Momolo  Paolo  Ananian 

Menego  Giulio  Rossi 

Un  Cervitore   Stef en  Buckreus 

I  have  discussed  "  Le  Donne  Curiose  "  in  my  "  Second 
Book  of  Opera  "  *  and  do  not  wish  to  waste  words  either 
in  a  description  of  its  contents  or  an  estimate  of  its  merits, 
which  to  me  seem  great.  Quite  as  interesting  as  the  work 
itself,  and  perhaps  as  significant  from  a  historical  point  of 
view,  was  the  fact  of  its  admission  to  the  repertory  of  the 
Metropolitan  Company,  which,  for  reasons  which  I  shall 
not  attempt  to  explain,  lest  I  do  wrong  to  the  management, 
had  seemed  since  the  accession  of  the  new  management 
under  the  domination  of  a  single  Italian  publisher.  I  need 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  much  nor  apologize  for  the  intima- 
tions I  have  already  thrown  out  concerning  the  reasons  why 
such  operas  as  "  Le  Villi,"  "  La  Wally,"  and  "  Germania," 
which  were  foredoomed  to  failure  here,  were  brought  for- 
ward by  Mr.  Gatti.  Three  days  after  the  first  performance 
of  his  opera  at  the  Metropolitan,  Wolf-Ferrari  arrived  in 
New  York.  On  the  day  after  his  arrival  he  attended  the 
first  repetition  of  it  and,  as  he  said,  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life  heard  one  of  his  Italian  operas  sung  in  Italian.  The 
explanation  of  this  somewhat  anomalous  circumstance  was 
that  his  works  had  not  been  published  in  Italy,  but  in  Ger- 

*"A  Second  Book  of  Opera"  by  H.  E.  Krehbiel.  New  York: 
The  Macmillan  Company,  1917.  P.  234. 


WOLF-FERRARI  AND  THE  METROPOLITAN         249 

many,  a  fact  which  after  the  declaration  of  war  against 
Germany  by  the  United  States  brought  them  under  the 
laws  of  this  government  touching  the  property  of  enemy- 
aliens.  Why  his  works  had  been  published  in  Germany  the 
composer  himself  explained :  the  Casa  Ricordi  maintained 
a  monopoly  of  opera  in  Italy  and  he  had  found  it  impossi- 
ble to  contract  with  it  on  its  terms,  notwithstanding  its 
advances  after  the  failure  of  Puccini's  "  Fanciulla  del 
West."  The  performing  rights  of  "  II  Segreto  di  Susanna  " 
had  been  sold  to  a  rival  firm  in  Italy,  and  those  for  his  new 
opera,  "  I  Giojelli  della  Madonna,"  had  been  withheld  from 
Italy  until  it  had  had  representations  in  Germany  and  the 
United  States.  The  opening  wedge  for  his  operas  in  this 
country  had  been  driven  by  Mr.  Dippel  when  he  produced 
"II  Segreto  di  Susanna"  in  March,  1911,  with  the  Phila- 
delphia Company.  Wolf -Ferrari  was  not  so  completely  a 
stranger  to  Americans  as  Thuille,  however,  for,  besides  his 
delicious  little  one-act  comedy,  which  had  won  instanta- 
neous admiration,  his  setting  of  Dante's  "  Vita  Nuova," 
performed  for  the  first  time  in  America  by  the  New  York 
Oratorio  Society  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Frank  Dam- 
rosch  on  December  4,  1907,  had  been  heard  in  other  cities 
and  had  made  a  profound  impression.  In  the  style  of  his 
music  there  is  a  mixture  of  national  and  racial  characteris- 
tics corresponding  with  the  mixture  of  blood  in  his  physical 
constitution.  He  was  born  in  Venice  on  January  12,  1876, 
his  mother  being  an  Italian,  his  father  a  German  Jew  and  a 
painter.  His  musical  studies  from  1893  to  1895  were  made 
in  Munich,  and  in  1902  he  became  director  of  the  Liceo 
Benedetto  Marcello  in  his  native  city.  This  post  he  re- 
signed in  1909  to  make  his  home  in  Germany,  probably 
because  he  had  become  convinced  that  appreciation  would 
come  to  him  quicker  in  Germany  than  in  Italy.  Like  Rubin- 
stein, he  suffered  from  disagreement  touching  his  national 
and  racial  status. 

Wolf-Ferrari  had  already  written  his  first  opera,   "  La 


250  "I  GIOJELLI  BELLA  MADONNA" 

Sulamita,"  when  he  went  to  Munich  to  continue  his  studies. 
His  operatic  version  of  the  story  of  Cinderella,  "  Ceneren- 
tola,"  was  performed  in  Venice  in  1900,  and  "  Le  Donne 
Curiose  "  in  German  as  "  Die  neugirigen  Frauen,"  in  Mu- 
nich. The  book  is  a  paraphrase  of  Goldoni's  comedy  of 
the  same  name  deftly  made  for  the  composer  by  Count 
Luigi  Sugana.  "  It  turns  on  the  curiosity  of  a  group  of 
women  concerning  the  doings  of  their  husbands  and  sweet- 
hearts at  a  club  from  which  they  are  excluded.  The  action 
is  merely  a  series  of  incidents  in  which  the  women  (the 
wives  by  rifling  the  pockets  of  their  husbands,  the  maidens 
by  wheedling,  cajoling,  and  playing  upon  the  feelings  of 
their  sweethearts)  obtain  the  keys  of  the  clubroom  and 
effect  an  entrance,  only  to  find  that  instead  of  gambling, 
harboring  mistresses,  seeking  the  philosopher's  stone  or  dig- 
ging for  treasure,  as  is  variously  suspected,  the  men  are 
enjoying  an  innocent  supper.  In  their  eagerness  to  see  all 
that  is  going  on  the  women  betray  their  presence.  Then 
there  follow  scoldings,  contrition,  forgiveness,  a  graceful 
minuet,  and  the  merriment  runs  out  in  a  wild  furlana." 

"  I  Giojelli  della  Madonna,"  which  had  received  its  first 
performance  in  Berlin  in  December,  1911,  and  been  heard 
for  the  first  time  in  America  in  Chicago  on  January  16, 
1912,  was  performed  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  on 
March  5,  1912,  by  the  Philadelphia-Chicago  Company,  Cleo- 
f onte  Campanini  conducting,  with  the  following  cast : 

Gennaro     Amadepo    Bassi 

Carmela    Louise   Berat 

Maliella    Carolina    White 

Rafaele    Mario   Samtnarco 

Biaso  Francesco  Daddi 

Ciccillo   Emilio  Venturini 

Stella   Jenny  Dufau 

Concetta   Mabel   Riegelman 

Serena    Marta   Wittkowski 

Grazia    Rosina    Galli 

Totonno   Edmond  Warnery 

Rocco  Nicolo  Fosetta 


MASSENET'S  "  CENDRILLON  "  251 

In  this  opera  the  composer  followed  the  spirit  of  young 
Italy  into  the  slums  of  Naples  and  to  it  sacrificed  the  beauty 
and  distinction  of  style  which  had  won  for  him  sincere  and 
almost  universal  admiration.  His  music  is  as  mixed  in 
manner  and  spirit  as  the  population  of  Naples,  and  despite 
its  occasional  beauty  quite  as  disreputable  as  part  of  that 
population.  For  the  reflections  which  it  provoked  in  my 
mind  I  must,  being  unwilling  to  repeat  or  paraphrase  what 
I  wrote  at  the  time,  refer  to  the  criticism  printed  in  my 
"  Second  Book  of  Operas."  * 

"  I  Giojelli  "  was  one  of  the  operas  produced  by  the 
Philadelphia-Chicago  company  during  its  visits  to  the  Met- 
ropolitan Opera  House.  Its  only  other  novelty  was  Masse- 
net's "  Cendrillon,"  which  was  performed  on  February  26 
with  the  following  distribution  of  dramatis  persona: 

Cendrillon    Maggie   Teyte 

Mme.  de  la  Haltiere Louise  Berat 

The   Prince    Mary   Garden 

The  Fairy  Jennie  Dufau 

Noemie    Mabel    Reigelmann 

Dorothee    Marie  Cavan 

Pandolfe   Hector  Dufranne 

The  King Gustave  Huberdeau 

Dean  of  the  Faculty  Francesco  Daddi 

Master  of  Ceremonies   Desire  Def rere 

The  Prime  Minister  Constantin  Nicolay 

Voix  du  Heraut  Charles  Meyer 

Signer  Campanini  conducted  the  performance.  The  story 
of  "  Cendrillon  "  is  more  or  less  the  story  of  Cinderella. 
Massenet  having  produced  his. opera  some  six  years  after 
Humperdinck  had  set  the  operatic  stage  afire,  figuratively 
speaking,  with  "  Hansel  und  Gretel,"  a  very  familiar  nursery 
tale,  it  is  not  much  to  be  wondered  at  that  Henri  Cain,  who 
wrote  Massenet's  libretto,  should  have  become  a  little  fear- 
ful lest  the  world  should  think  that  the  authors  had  been  in- 
fluenced in  their  choice  of  a  subject  by  the  success  of  the 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  239. 


252  OLD  CINDERELLA  OPERAS 

German  work.  So  M.  Cain  took  the  trouble  to  write  a  letter 
to  M.  Jullien  in  which  he  said  that  he  and  his  collaborator 
had  been  dallying  with  the  tale  of  Cinderella  and  had 
even  sketched  their  opera  before  Herr  Humperdinck  had 
launched  his  delightful  opera.  He  might  have  spared  him- 
self the  exertion.  In  the  first  place  "  Hansel  und  Gretel " 
existed  as  a  little  play  written  for  performance  by  the  chil- 
dren of  the  composer's  sister,  who  made  the  book,  some 
time  before  it  became  an  opera.  In  the  next  place  there 
had  been  operas  based  on  nursery  tales,  even  on  that  of 
Cinderella,  long  before  MM.  Cain  and  Massenet  were  born. 
There  was  a  French  "  Cendrillon  "  as  early  as  1759.  Stei- 
belt,  a  very  considerable  fellow  in  the  musical  world,  who 
carried  pretty  much  everything  before  him  until  he  tried 
some  mountebank  tricks  against  Beethoven  in  Vienna,  won 
a  large  reputation  with  an  opera  on  the  subject  which  came 
out  in  St.  Petersburg  in  1809 ;  Isouard  produced  a  Cinder- 
ella opera  in  1910,  and  it  is  possible  even  yet  to  hear  in  the 
concert-rooms  an  air  from  Rossini's  "  Cenerentola,"  which 
had  its  first  representation  in  1817  and  in  which  Alboni 
made  a  triumph.  The  public  may  easily  be  pardoned  for 
forgetting  such  things,  but  it  is  not  so  pardonable  when  his- 
torians like  Clement  and  Larousse  and  the  German  Riemann 
falsify  the  record,  as  they  do  when  they  state  that  Manuel 
Popolo  Garcia,  who  introduced  Italian  opera  in  New  York 
in  1825,  performed  a  Cinderella  opera  of  his  own  composi- 
tion in  that  first  season.  As  a  matter  of  fact  he  performed 
two  operas  for  which  he  had  composed  the  music,  but  the 
Cinderella  opera  which  he  brought  out  was  Rossini's. 

After  all  it  did  not  much  matter.  If  Massenet's  "  Cen- 
drillon "  had  preceded  "  Hansel  und  Gretel "  by  as  many 
years  as  it  was  preceded  by  other  operas  on  the  subject,  it 
would  not  be  better  in  the  eyes  of  contemporary  criticism 
than  it  is.  Somewhere  in  "  Jean-Christophe  "  there  is  an 
intimation  that  no  matter  what  contemporary  French  com- 
posers try  to  do  and  be,  there  is  a  little  Massenet  at  the  bot- 


LEO  BLECH'S  "  VERSIEGELT  "         253 

torn  of  their  hearts.  The  remark,  I  take  it,  was  not  intended 
to  be  wholly  complimentary  either  to  the  French  composers 
of  today  or  to  their  most  prolific  representative,  M.  Mas- 
senet. With  "  Cendrillon  "  and  "  Hansel  und  Gretel "  in 
mind,  it  must  be  said  that  there  is  nothing  which  makes 
Humperdinck's  setting  of  a  nursery  tale  appealing,  charm- 
ing, compelling  to  the  intellect  as  well  as  the  emotions  which 
finds  a  parallel  in  Massenet's  setting  of  the  story  of  Cinder- 
ella. The  story  is  as  much  the  property  of  the  French  as 
any  other  people.  Humperdinck  did  wonders  by  treating 
his  fairy  tale  in  the  manner  employed  by  Wagner  in  treat- 
ing the  Teutonic  myths,  using  the  system  of  typical  phrases 
with  excellent  effect,  but  taking  his  musical  themes,  as  he 
took  his  literary,  out  of  the  mouths  of  the  little  denizens  of 
the  nursery.  M.  Massenet  did  nothing  of  the  sort.  He  took 
a  children's  story  and  made  an  opera  in  his  style  out  of  it, 
with  all  the  familiar  grace  and  elegance,  but  without  once 
admitting  the  atmosphere  of  the  nursery.  A  pretty  opera, 
but  conventional,  and  in  this  performance  robbed  of  much 
of  its  musical  and  dramatic  grace  by  Miss  Garden's  repre- 
sentation of  Prince  Charming. 

"  Versiegelt,"  a  German  comic  opera,  the  book  by  Rich- 
ard Batka,  a  musical  litterateur;  the  music  by  Leo  Blech, 
at  the  time  one  of  the  conductors  at  the  Court  Opera  in 
Berlin,  was  performed  for  the  first  time  in  America  on 
January  20,  1912,  under  the  direction  of  Alfred  Hertz, 
with  the  following  distribution  of  parts : 

Braun,  burgomaster  Hermann  Weil 

Elsie,  his  daughter   Bella  Alten 

Frau  Gertrud,  a  young  widow   Johanna  Gadski 

Fran    Willmers    Marie   Mattfeld 

Bertel,  her  son  Hermann  Jadlowker 

Lampe,  constable  Otto  Goritz 

Neighbor  Knote  Marcel  Reiner 

Champion  Marksman  Basil  Ruysdael 

The  little  work,  which  shared  the  afternoon  with  "  Pag- 
liacci,"  would  have  been  more  diverting  as  a  spoken  drama 


254  A  ROLLICKING  GERMAN  COMEDY 

than  it  proved  as  an  opera.  If  we  were  bound  to  have  it  in 
a  lyric  form,  we  should  have  chosen  for  it  the  musical  man- 
ner of  Wolf -Ferrari  rather  than  that  too  plainly  charac- 
terized by  the  name  of  the  composer.  As  a  spoken  drama, 
indeed,  "  Versiegelt "  had  existed  on  the  German  stage  for 
some  three-quarters  of  a  century.  All  of  its  elements  and 
all  of  its  characters  were  familiar,  but  their  new  combina- 
tion was  ingeniously  made  by  the  librettist.  The  story  is 
this :  An  old  widow  is  attached  by  affection  to  a  wardrobe, 
an  heirloom  in  her  family.  Unable  on  a  sudden  call  to  pay 
her  taxes,  she  appeals  to  a  friend,  a  younger  and  more  fas- 
cinating widow,  to  harbor  it  for  her  so  that  it  may  not  be 
sold  by  the  taxgatherer.  She  wins  the  consent  of  her  friend 
by  representing  that  the  burgomaster  has  fallen  a  victim  to 
her  charms.  Now  the  second  gossip  is  more  eager  to  be- 
come Fran  Bilrgermeisterin  than  anything  else  in  this 
world,  so  she  not  only  makes  a  place  for  the  wardrobe 
among  her  household  goods,  but  also  undertakes  to  pro- 
mote a  love  affair  between  the  older  widow's  son  and  the 
burgomaster's  daughter.  The  wardrobe  is  transferred  to 
her  apartment,  where  it  is  discovered  by  the  too  vigilant 
chief  of  police.  While  he  is  gone  to  make  sure  that  there  is 
no  double  of  the  piece  of  furniture  which  has  become  his 
legal  prey,  the  burgomaster  comes  to  make  love  to  the 
charming  young  widow.  He  is  about  to  embrace  her  when 
the  chief  of  police  enters,  and  the  burgomaster  hastily  con- 
ceals himself  in  the  wardrobe.  Suspecting  a  fraud  against 
the  tax  laws,  the  police  official  affixes  his  seal  on  the  piece 
of  furniture  and  goes  out  to  investigate.  There  enter  the 
burgomaster's  daughter  and  her  lover,  against  whose  union 
the  burgomaster  had  set  his  adamantine  face.  Seeing  an 
opportunity  to  promote  her  ambition,  the  merry  widow  tells 
the  young  people  that  the  mayor  is  under  seal  in  the  ward- 
robe and  goes  out  to  summon  the  neighbors,  most  of  whom 
are  attending  a  shooting  match.  The  lovers  now  play  a  bit 
of  comedy  for  the  benefit  of  the  unwilling  prisoner.  The 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  OPERA  255 

maiden  makes  violent  love  to  her  sweetheart  and  he  as  vio- 
lently rejects  her  unmaidenly  advances,  protesting  that  re- 
spect for  her  father  will  not  permit  him  to  receive  them. 
All  this,  of  course,  in  front  of  the  wardrobe  so  that  the 
conversation  may  be  overheard  by  its  occupant.  At  last 
the  burgomaster  calls  out  to  be  released  from  imprison- 
ment, but  the  artful  daughter  makes  the  delivery  conditional 
upon  his  signing  an  agreement  that  she  shall  marry  the  man 
of  her  choice  and  give  her  a  handsome  dowry  to  boot.  He 
signs  the  document  through  an  aperture  in  the  wardrobe 
door  and  secures  his  liberty,  but  insists  upon  the  young 
folks  taking  his  place,  hoping  thus  for  both  amusement  and 
revenge.  Nothing  could  be  more  to  their  liking. 

Meanwhile  the  villagers,  headed  by  the  Schutzenkonig, 
are  brought  in  by  the  scheming  widow  to  be  witnesses  of 
the  compromising  attitude  of  the  burgomaster.  The  crowd 
make  merry  at  the  expense  of  the  official,  but  are  amazed 
when,  the  door  being  opened,  the  lovers  are  found  within. 
In  the  midst  of  the  consternation  back  comes  the  chief  of 
police  with  a  tale  that  the  burgomaster  and  the  lovers  have 
indubitably  been  murdered,  since  he  had  sought  in  vain  for 
a  trace  of  them  throughout  the  village.  The  burgomaster 
confronts  him,  orders  him  to  enter  the  wardrobe,  which  is 
carried  back  to  the  home  of  its  owner,  leaving  two  pairs  of 
lovers,  old  and  young,  kissing  each  other  as  the  curtain 
falls.  An  old  conceit,  ingeniously  exploited  and  cleverly 
set  to  music  by  a  youthful  and  not  too  adept  disciple  of 
Wagner — not  too  adept,  I  say,  because  had  he  been  more  a 
dabster  he  would  not  have  been  so  monotonous  in  his  use 
of  the  blech  in  his  orchestra.  For  the  rest  the  music  rests 
on  "  Die  Meistersinger  "  when  the  action  is  in  progress,  and 
on  Millocker  when  a  halt  is  made  for  lyric  song. 

On  March  4,  1912,  "  Mona,"  the  opera  for  which  the  Met- 
ropolitan Opera  Company  had  offered  a  prize  of  $10,000 
three  years  before,  received  its  first  performance  under  cir- 
cumstances of  unusual  interest.  Mr.  Gatti  redeemed  the 


256       FIRST  PERFORMANCE  OF  PARKER'S  "MONA" 

promises  of  the  directors  of  the  company  in  a  magnificent 
manner,  so  far  as  the  representation  was  concerned,  and 
essayed  the  most  significant  experiment  in  the  field  of  native 
or  national  opera  that  the  country  had  witnessed  up  to  that 
time  and  the  most  instructive  one  that  the  country  has  ever 
seen.  The  fact  that  the  work  did  not  achieve  success  in  a 
sufficient  degree  to  lead  to  its  retention  in  the  repertory  in 
the  succeeding  season  or  its  restoration  in  any  season  since 
was  and  is  deplorable.  The  fault,  beyond  question,  lay 
largely  in  the  work  itself ;  but  had  the  attitude  of  the  com- 
pany in  1912  been  like  that  which  it  was  compelled  to  as- 
sume by  the  untoward  circumstances  of  the  world-war  five 
years  later  it  is  likely  that  the  opera  would  have  received  a 
revision  at  the  hands  of  its  authors  which  might  have  saved 
it  from  the  not  wholly  deserved  fate  which  befel  it.  I  am 
not  quite  sure  but  that  a  more  ardent  desire  or  a  greater 
zeal  in  behalf  of  national  opera  ought  not  to  have  moved  the 
directors  to  a  more  determined  effort  to  habilitate  a  work 
which  in  every  respect  disclosed  a  lofty  striving.  It  was 
the  firstling  of  inexperienced  men,  but  they  were  men  of 
fine  capacities  and  high  ideals.  The  history  of  opera  is  full 
of  instances  in  which  the  failures  of  masters  were  redeemed 
by  a  revision  of  works  whose  weaknesses  had  been  disclosed 
in  the  original  productions,  and  the  ailing  spots  in  "  Mona  " 
to  which  a  remedial  hand  might  have  been  applied  were  ob- 
vious, while  the  merits  of  the  poem  and  score  were  so  great 
that  an  attempt  ought  to  have  been  made  to  save  it  as  an 
example  of  national  art  and  for  the  encouragement  of 
American  authors.  But  of  this  no  thought  seertis  to  have 
entered  the  minds  of  the  opera  company's  directors  or  the 
newspaper  critics — perhaps  not  even  the  minds  of  Mr. 
Hooker  and  Dr.  Parker.  A  few  years  later  operas  of  much 
smaller  artistic  significance  were  given  much  more  generous 
treatment  by  the  management,  public  and  press,  simply  be- 
cause of  the  posture  of  circumstances — a  posture  which 
ought  not  to  become  too  dominantly  influential  if  the  inter- 


HORATIO  W.  PARKER 
Composer  of  "Mona"' 


A  TALE  OF  ANCIENT  BRITAIN  25? 

ests  of  art  are  to  be  subserved  rather  than  the  financial 
prosperity  of  the  institution.  The  phase  which  the  problem 
of  national  opera  has  now  assumed  did  not  seem  imminent 
in  1912,  when  its  solution  might  have  been  undertaken  in  a 
sane  and  orderly  manner.  It  is  now  become  a  condition 
the  resolution  of  which  is  quite  as  likely  to  work  disaster 
to  good  taste  and  sound  judgment  as  to  bring  valuable 
results,  or  at  least  to  lead  through  a  darkness  of  disappoint- 
ment and  failure  before  emerging  into  the  light  of  success. 

There  must  presently  be  a  discussion  of  the  questions 
which  have  precipitated  these  reflections ;  now  the  business 
in  hand  is  the  new  opera.  The  story  of  "  Mona  "  can  not 
be  told  better  than  Mr.  Hooker  tells  it  in  the  argument  with 
which  he  prefaced  the  poem  when  he  printed  it  in  literary 
form,*  and  which  I  reproduce  as  preliminary  to  my  dis- 
cussion : 


In  the  days  of  Roman  rule  in  Britain  Quintus,  the  son  of  a  Roman 
governor  by  a  British  captive,  has  grown  up  as  one  of  his  mother's 
people  known  to  them  as  Gwynn ;  has  won  place  and  power  among 
them  as  a  bard  making  their  peace  with  Rome ;  and  is  to  wed 
Mona,  the  foster-child  of  Enya  and  Arth  and  last  of  the  blood  of 
Boadicea.  But  a  great  rebellion  has  brewed  in  Britain  under  Cara- 
doc,  their  chief  bard,  and  Gloom,  the  Druid  foster-brother  of  Mona. 
She  by  birthright  and  by  old  signs  and  prophecies  is  foretold  their 
leader ;  and  thereto  she  has  been  bred  up  hating  Rome  and  dreaming 
of  great  deeds.  This  Gywnn  withstands  in  vain ;  and  lest  he  lose 
Mona  and  all  his  power,  is  driven  to  swear  fellowship  in  their 
conspiracy.  Even  so  for  urging  peace  he  is  disowned  and  cast  off 
by  them  and  by  her. 

Nevertheless  he  follows  her  as  she  journeys  about  the  land  arous- 
ing revolt ;  holding  back  the  Roman  garrisons  from  seizing  her 
and  secretly  saving  her  life  and  the  life  of  the  rebellion  many 
times.  For  this  he  is  blamed  by  the  Governor,  his  father ;  but 
answers  that  through  Mona  he  will  yet  keep  the  tribes  from  war. 
The  Governor  lays  all  upon  him,  promising  to  spare  the  Britons  if 
they  bide  harmless,  but  if  they  strike,  to  crush  them  without  mercy. 
Gwynn  therefore,  meeting  Mona,  upon  the  eve  of  the  battle,  so 
moves  her  love  for  him  that  she  is  from  then  utterly  his  own. 

*"Mona;  an  Opera  in  Three  Acts."  New  York:  Dodd,  Mead 
and  Co.,  1911. 


258  THE  CHARACTER  OF  THE  HEROINE 

And  in  that  triumph  he  begins  to  tell  her  of  his  plans  for  peace. 
But  she,  not  hearing  him  out,  and  barely  understanding  that  he  is  a 
Roman,  cries  for  help  and  calls  in  the  Britons  upon  him.  Yet  even 
so  she  will  not  betray  him  and  lies  to  save  his  life.  They  make 
him  prisoner  and,  led  by  Mona  and  the  guards,  rush  forth  against 
the  Roman  town. 

The  fight  is  crushed.  Arth  falls  and  Gloom  is  hurt  to  death,  sav- 
ing Mona  against  her  will.  Gwynn,  escaping  in  the  turmoil  of 
defeat,  comes  upon  them  and  tries  to  stay  further  harm,  telling 
Mona  of  his  heritage  and  beseeching  her  aid.  But  she,  having  taken 
him  for  a  traitor,  takes  him  now  for  a  liar ;  and  deeming  all  their 
woe  his  doing  and  her  fault  for  having  saved  his  life,  she  slays  him 
with  her  own  hand.  Then  presently  come  the  Governor  and  his 
soldiers ;  and  Mona,  before  she  is  led  away  captive,  learns  how 
Gwynn  spoke  the  truth  and  how  by  yielding  up  her  high  deeds, 
womanly  for  love's  sake,  she  might  have  compassed  all  her  endeavor. 

This  is  a  tale  with  an  old  foundation,  as  old  as  humanity 
probably,  but  one  which,  in  one  phase  or  another,  is  per- 
petually new.  A  woman,  carried  away  by  an  emotional 
frenzy,  unsexes  herself,  and  in  trying  to  accomplish  what 
she  conceives  to  be  a  great  mission  sacrifices  the  life  and 
happiness  of  herself  and  those  who  love  and  appreciate 
her  best  as  well  as  the  cause  to  which  she  feels  herself  con- 
secrated. She  sees  the  love-light  in  the  eyes  of  a  brave, 
unselfish  man  who,  unknown  to  her,  is  accomplishing  what 
she  had  set  to  be  her  aim.  She  dreams  of  love,  she  feels  the 
hands  of  little  children  in  the  dark,  unborn  and  crying  to 
them  to  mother  them,  but  puts  all  aside  because  she  thinks 
she 

could  not  be 

A  woman,  loved  and  loving,  nor  endure 
Motherhood  and  the  wise  ordinary  joys 
Of  day  by  day. 

And  so  she  leads  her  people  in  a  hopeless  cause  and  kills 
her  lover  only  to  learn  at  the  last  that  had  she  listened  to 
God's  voice  and  yielded  to  weakness,  the  strange  fear  of  her 
lover's  glad  eyes,  the  "  warm  pain  "  in  her  blood  answering 
him,  the  "  little  foolish  whisper  "  in  her  heart,  drunk  of  the 
joy  that  was  proffered,  been  only  a  woman  instead  of  fol- 


MUSIC  AND  TEXT  IN  A  LYRIC  DRAMA  259 

lowing  dreams,  she  "  would  have  won  "  all  that  she  strove 
for  in  vain  by  putting  woman's  nature  aside.  It  is  a  preach- 
ment, of  course,  and  a  wise  one,  though  there  be  many  now 
who  will  say  that  it  is  become  an  impertinence  and  a  fool- 
ishness. Mr.  Hooker  made  no  hesitation  in  confessing  the 
purpose  which  he  had  in  mind  when  he  wrote  his  really 
strong  and  poetical  book.  This  book,  however,  is  not  suit- 
able for  operatic  purposes.  It  is  defective  even  with  a 
spoken  representation,  though  it  visualizes  well  and  its  lines 
are  full  of  picturesqueness  and  frequently  of  strong  beauty. 
But  the  inexperience  of  the  authors  was  exemplified  in  their 
indifference  to  some  of  the  prime  requirements  of  a  lyric 
drama.  When  music  enters  the  play  in  its  highest  estate  it 
is  for  the  purpose  of  proclaiming  and  celebrating  an  emo- 
tional state  up  to  which  the  dialogue  has  led.  The  dialogue 
itself  in  an  opera  is  a  necessary  evil  and  an  intrusion.  There 
is  a  paucity  of  action  in  "  Mona,"  but  that  is'  not  a  fatal 
defect  in  an  opera,  speaking  of  action  as  movement  and  the 
doing  of  things  on  the  stage,  the  changing  picture,  outward 
incident.  It  is  not  the  highest  province  of  music  to  accom- 
pany these  things  even  in  the  modern  drama  in  which  music 
has  surrendered  much  of  its  nature  and  purpose.  Music 
can  prepare  for  movement  and  incident  and  situation,  but 
its  highest  potency  is  in  proclaiming  and  hymning  after  their 
arrival  the  emotional  states  which  they  produce.  Therefore 
excess  of  dialogue  and  neglect  of  melody  are  fatal  to  lyric 
drama.  If  there  is  to  be  proper  celebration  of  emotional 
states,  then  dramatic  conversation  must  yield  to  lyricism, 
lyricism  in  the  musical  score  no  less  than  in  the  verbal  text. 
Only  once  did  Mr.  Hooker  break  away  from  the  Tenny- 
sonian  verse-form  which  he  chose  for  his  dialogue,  and  only 
once  did  Dr.  Parker  write  the  kind  of  music  which  the 
public,  whether  rating  it  good  or  faulting  it  as  bad,  justly 
considered  the  kind  of  music  that  was  called  for.  It  was 
in  the  chorus  of  Britons  near  the  close  of  the  second  act  of 
the  opera.  There  should  have  been  many  such  straight- 


260  EXCELLENCE  OF  INGENUOUS  EFFORT 

forward  musical  episodes  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  the  con- 
structive method  which  the  composer  had  chosen  to  adopt. 

The  play  is  a  fine  one,  but  the  poetry  too  full  of  artistic 
elements  to  win  recognition  in  a  mixed  art-form  like  the 
opera.  That  to  some  may  seem  an  anomaly,  and  to  them  it 
will  appear  more  anomalous  still  if  not  directly  paradoxical 
that  in  the  defects  of  the  composition  there  lay  the  most  in- 
teresting phase  of  the  experiment  made  by  the  authors. 
There  are  elements  in  the  work  so  ingenuous  as  almost  to 
invite  a  smile ;  but  they  were  presented  with  a  sincerity 
and  strength  which  almost  confounded  the  knowing.  It  is 
doubtful  if  either  of  the  authors  had  ever  seen  or  looked 
into  "  Norma,"  which,  like  theirs,  is  a  Roman-Druidic 
opera,  or  "  Le  Pardon  de  Ploermel,"  in  which  Dinorah 
dances  with  her  shadow  and  prattles  with  it,  just  as  a  half- 
witted character,  Nial,  does  in  "  Mona."  I  doubt  if  either 
Mr.  Hooker  or  Professor  Parker  had  even  a  bowing  ac- 
quaintance with  Meyerbeer's  "  Les  Huguenots,"  in  which 
there  occurs  a  benediction  of  poignards  like,  yet  very  unlike, 
a  scene  in  which  the  Druidic  swords  receive  a  consecration 
in  this  opera;  yet  the  presentation  of  the  old  features  in 
the  new  work  was  so  fresh,  honest,  and  ingenuous  that  it 
carried  conviction  to  the  minds  of  the  audience.  Something 
of  the  same  nature  may  be  said  of  every  character  drawn 
by  the  poet  and  clothed  in  music  by  the  composer.  They 
were  not  only  remarkable  as  first  creations,  but  so  strik- 
ingly effective  that  old  observers  were  compelled  to  sit  back 
and  marvel  at  what  had  been  accomplished  by  novices  and 
wonder  more  what  they  might  accomplish  at  a  second  trial. 
It  was  felt  to  be  a  pity  that  in  creating  the  character  of  the 
heroine  every  element  which  might  have  drawn  the  specta- 
tor in  pity  toward  her  was  omitted.  The  parallelism  with 
Boadicea  was  obvious ;  but  Boadicea  asks  sympathy  of  him 
who  contemplates  her  story  if  for  no  other  reason  than  its 
obvious  conclusion.  When  Mr.  Hooker  brings  Mona  to  the 
pass  where  there  can  be  no  other  outcome  than  the  historic 


AN  UNSYMPATHETIC  PRINCIPAL  CHARACTER      261 

he  shrinks  from  making  it,  because  suicide  would,  forsooth, 
be  a  commonplace  ending.  So  he  makes  no  ending  at  all. 
The  woman  addresses  a  speech  to  her  dead  lover,  confess- 
ing her  failure,  and  the  drama  flickers  out  like  a  candle  in 
the  wind,  leaving  the  audience  in  doubt  as  to  whether  they 
shall  go  home  or  wait  to  learn  the  end  of  the  "  strange, 
eventful  history."  The  poet,  seeking  to  proclaim  the 
womanly  mission  of  woman,  permits  the  womanly  instincts 
in  Mona  only  a  few  widely  scattered  utterances  and  inter- 
rupts each  one  so  rudely  that  it  is  impossible  to  think  of 
her  otherwise  than  as  the  Judith  which  she  proclaims  her- 
self to  be  in  the  first  act.  The  witling  Nial  *  has  told  her 
that  she  is  beautiful : 

Beautiful!     Will  my  beauty  break  the  chain? 

If  I  might  make  thereof  a  charm  to  snare 

The  leader  of  our  enemies — and  then 

While  he  leaned  down  and  loved  me  strike  one  stroke 

Into  his  wolf-heart,  and  leave  Britain  free   .    .    . 

I  dream  this ;  who  shall  make  it  more  than  dream? 

— <jive  me  the  sword. 

A  Judith?  Nay,  a  worse  than  she;  for  Judith  killed  the 
enemy  of  her  people  to  save  them,  while  Mona  assassinates 

*  It  is  a  pity  that  Mr.  Hooker  saw  fit  to  call  Nial  a  "  changeling." 
The  word  has  only  two  possible  meanings  in  ancient  British  folk- 
lore. A  changeling  is  a  weak  and  starveling  elf,  generally  of  great 
age,  who  has  been  substituted  by  the  fairies  for  a  human  babe  be- 
fore christening.  In  Shakespeare's  mind  a  changeling  was  also  a 
human  child  thus  stolen,  for  Titania  has  in  her  train 

"  A  lovely  boy,  stolen  from  an  Indian  king, 
She  never  had  so  sweet  a  changeling  "- 

so  sweet,  indeed,  was  this  boy  as  to  excite  Oberon's  jealousy.  But 
Nial  is  merely  a  simpleton,  a  witling,  a  weak-minded  lad,  a  soul- 
less physical  husk,  as  he  thinks,  who  not  only  propounds  all  the 
sound  philosophy  of  his  people  but  sees  the  aural  envelope  of  all 
the  people  of  the  play.  All  his  talk  about  shadows  and  souls  was 
venturesome  dramatic  material — but  here  the  musician  came  to  the 
help  of  the  poet  and  incidents  which  were  perilously  near  the  border 
line  between  the  pathetic  and  the  ludicrous  were  saved  by  Professor 
Parker's  exquisite  music. 


262  MR.  HOOKER  AND  TENNYSON 

her  lover  after  her  cause  is  lost  and  for  mere  revenge. 
There  can  be  no  other  motive  for  her  act  except  the  fatalism 
of  which  she  is  the  victim,  and  the  manner  in  which  she 
gives  Gwynn  the  deathblow  robs  her  of  the  last  vestige  of 
sympathy  such  as  is  called  forth  by  the  tragic  heroines  in 
even  the  most  awful  of  Attic  tragedies.  Only  once  before 
she  realizes  the  failure  of  her  imagined  mission  does  she 
yield  to  her  gentler  nature.  It  is  in  the  love  scene  of  the 
second  act  when  the  woman  in  her,  like  Tennyson's  equally 
mistaken  but  gentler  princess,  answered  to  the  voice  of  love 
and 

All 

Her  falser  self  slipt  from  her  like  a  robe, 
And  left  her  woman,  lovelier  in  her  mood 
Than  in  her  mould  that  other  when  she  came 
From  barren  deeps  to  conquer  all  with  love. 

But  even  here  it  requires  but  a  word  to  loose  the  fanatical 
demon  within  her.  Gwynn  had  pleaded  his  love  and  won 
her  to  a  confession  of  tenderness.  He  is  glad  and  wishes 
her  to  know  that  she  has  fashioned  her  country's  happiness 
with  her  own : 

Gwynn: 

This  night 
Thou  hast  saved  Britain ! 

Mono: 
Britain.  .    .    .   Let  me  go ! 

It  was  only  as  an  opera  composer  that  Professor  Parker 
was  a  novice,  and  since  the  production  of  "  Mona  "  he  has 
written  another  opera  which  had  a  production  before  a  gath- 
ering of  musical  clubs  in  Los  Angeles,  California.  Of  its 
music  I  shall  not  speak,  for,  though  it  marked  a  material 
departure  from  that  of  "  Mona,"  I  have  but  seen  it  on  the 
printed  page,  and  only  hearing  is  believing  in  the  art  of 
sounds.  Before  he  essayed  the  dramatic  field,  however,  he 
had  written  much  and  well  in  nearly  all  the  forms,  large 


LOUISE  HOMER 
In  "Mona" 


PROFESSOR  PARKER'S  METHODS  263 

and  small,  except  the  symphony,  his  only  essay  in  this  de- 
partment, I  believe,  having  been  made  in  his  student  days 
at  Munich  nearly  a  generation  ago.  In  all  this  music, 
whether  vocal  or  instrumental,  he  had  been  a  frank  and 
graceful  melodist,  a  respecter  of  form,  and  a  masterly  con- 
trapuntist. It  surprised  his  friends  not  a  little,  therefore, 
that  in  his  first  adventure  in  the  operatic  field  he  was  willing 
to  forego  to  a  large  extent  his  characteristic  lyricism  and 
in  its  place  to  substitute  dramatic  declamation  over  an  or- 
chestral part  restless  in  ever-shifting  tonality.  At  times 
this  orchestral  part  achieved  symphonic  consistency  and 
fluency  and  rose  to  eloquence  in  the  climacteric  moments, 
as  in  the  love  duet,  the  final  speech  of  Mona,  and  when  pro- 
pelled by  the  rhythmic  pulses  of  the  Roman  march  it 
brought  agreeable  and  much-needed  energy  into  the  score, 
which  had  suffered  from  long  stretches  of  monotony  im- 
posed by  the  interminable  dialogue  and  its  heavy-footed 
delivery.  It  was  not  to  be  expected  of  Professor  Parker 
that,  having  a  strong,  vital,  and  tragical  drama  to  clothe 
with  music,  he  should  revert  to  the  archaic  methods  to  which 
Wagner  gave  the  deathblow.  He  frankly  uses  the  system 
of  typical  phrases,  or  musical  symbols  (which  has  become 
the  easy  makeshift  of  many  composers  lacking  in  melodic 
invention),  though  he  did  not  see  fit  to  give  them  labels  or 
expound  their  significances  (neither  did  Wagner,  for  that 
matter),  nor  adhere  to  them  with  the  logical  consistency  of 
the  creator  of  the  system.  In  addition,  quite  unconsciously, 
as  I  am  willing  to  believe,  he  employed  a  system  of  charac- 
terization by  means  of  keys.  I  would  not  have  too  much 
significance  attached  to  this  statement  or  to  have  it  accepted 
too  literally.  There  are,  indeed,  two  prevailing  keys  (E-flat 
major  and  E  minor)  for  the  heroine ;  the  dominant  key  of 
Nial's  music  is  D  major  and  of  Enya's  G  minor.  The  fea- 
ture has  an  interesting  side,  but  I  lay  no  stress  upon  it ;  may 
interest  some  musicians,  but  not  all ;  it  cannot  interest  the 
public  at  all  unless  it  affects  them  emotionally  and  in  a 


264  TONALITIES  AND  SYMBOLS 

sense  unconsciously.  Not  even  musicians  are  agreed  in  hold- 
ing belief  in  the  emotional  characteristics  of  keys.  Some 
do;  many  more  do  not.  The  whole  matter,  like  the  sup- 
posed relationship  between  keys,  colors,  and  perfumes,  is 
more  or  less  (more  rather  than  less)  fanciful  and  at  the 
best  a  thing  in  which  personal  equation  plays  too  large  a 
part  to  admit  of  discussion  on  general  lines;  also,  I  fear, 
a  thing  of  affectation.  There  are  musicians,  many  of  them, 
including  composers,  who  can  not  recognize  absolute  pitch, 
and  a  capacity  which  is  so  rare  among  musicians  ought  not 
to  be  expected  of  the  ordinary  operatic  public.  If  not  pitch, 
then  certainly  not  key.  A  Beethoven  might  have  been  privi- 
leged to  feel  and  say  that  Klopstock's  poetry  is  too  much 
in  D-flat  maestoso,  but  we  can  not  think  the  fact  justifies  a 
similar  basis  of  criticism  for  an  occupant  of  box-seat  or 
orchestra-stall  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  unless  the 
occupant  be  another  Beethoven  or  one  like  him.  The  device 
of  Wagner  in  using  instrumental  color  or  combinations  as 
he  does  in  "  Lohengrin,"  where  he  gives  voice  to  the  dreamy 
ecstasy  of  Elsa  not  only  by  her  words  but  also  in  the 
timbre  of  the  wood- wind  choir,  and  the  chivalric  character 
of  the  Knight  of  the  Swan  in  the  brilliant,  militant  tone  of 
the  trumpet  is  much  more  to  the  purpose  because  much 
more  obvious.  But  that  is  an  entirely  different  matter. 

And  so  is  the  employment  of  typical  phrases,  Leitmotive 
as  they  are  called  in  German.  They  make  an  intellectual 
appeal  even  when  their  invention  and  application  are  baldly 
arbitrary ;  they  may  make  an  emotional  appeal  also  when 
they  become  in  a  sense  onomatopoetic  or  where  their  rela- 
tionship to  the  thing  —  emotion,  passion,  character,  or 
agency — is  recognizable,  as  is  the  case  frequently  in  Wag- 
ner's dramas.  Where  the  symbols  in  no  wise  suggest  their 
objects  they  are  an  impertinence  and  nothing  better  than  a 
crutch  for  a  composer's  creative  fancy.  I  confess  that  I 
found  many  admirable  elements  in  Professor  Parker's 
themes  and  his  employment  of  them.  They  were  invited 


PAUCITY  OF  FRANK  LYRICISM  265 

by  the  drama,  but  they  should  not  have  stood  in  the  way  of 
a  freer,  wider,  more  generous  use  of  lyricism  in  the  old  and 
accepted  sense.  It  would  be  easy  to  hold  the  poet  responsi- 
ble for  the  paucity  of  let  us  say  desirable  even  if  conven- 
tional tune,  but  poet  and  composer  were  here  working  hand 
in  hand  from  the  conception  of  their  work  till  its  comple- 
tion, and  Mr.  Hooker  was  no  more  to  blame  than  Dr. 
Parker  for  the  paucity  of  varied  lyric  forms  which  the  play 
would  not  only  have  tolerated  but  which  it  even  invited. 
There  was  also  too  little  concerted  music.  There  was  no 
thrill  in  the  first  act  till  several  voices  were  united  in  har- 
mony, and  then  it  was  over  in  a  moment.  In  the  second 
act  the  listeners  grew  weary  waiting  for  the  love  scene, 
which,  when  it  came,  was  scarcely  a  duet,  and  refreshment 
did  not  come  till  it  was  brought  with  the  Druidic  chorus, 
for  which,  without  compromising  himself  or  his  artistic 
nature,  Professor  Parker  might  have  found  a  capital  model 
in  Mendelssohn's  "  Walpurgis  Night."  In  the  last  act  there 
was  again  only  monologue  and  dialogue  (save  for  a  few 
muttered  words  by  the  Roman  soldiers)  until  the  end.  How 
much  more  wisely  did  Wagner,  the  founder  of  the  con- 
structive system  used  by  Professor  Parker,  build!  Even  in 
"  Gotterdammerung "  when  the  occasion  warranted  it  he 
let  Gunther's  men  sing  like  a  veritable  Liedertafel!  This 
was  the  cast  for  "  Mona,"  for  which  Mr.  Hertz  did  a  noble 
service  in  the  conductor's  chair : 

Mona,  Princess  of  Britain  Louise  Homer 

Enya,  her  foster-mother   Rita  Fornia 

Arth,  husband  of  Enya   Herbert  Witherspoon 

Gloom,  their  son,  a  Druid   William  Hinshaw 

Nial,  a  changeling Albert  Reiss 

Caradoc,  chief  bard  of  Britain   Lambert  Murphy 

Roman  Governor  of  Britain  Putnam  Griswold 

Quintus,  his  son    Riccardo  Martin 

An  old  man    Basil    Ruysdael 

Monteverde's  "  Orfeo,"  the  performance  of  which  in  con- 
cert form  took  place  on  Sunday  evening,  April  14,  1912,  had 


266  MONTEVERDE'S  "ORFEO"  IN  CONCERT  STYLE 

its  first  representation  on  the  occasion  of  the  marriage  of 
the  son  of  the  Duke  of  Mantua  to  Margherita  of  Savoy, 
A.  D.  1607.  Its  score  had  been  arranged  for  modern  or- 
chestra by  Professor  Orefice  for  the  Associazione  Italiana 
di  Amice  della  Musica,  under  whose  auspices  the  revised 
score  was  published  and  the  opera  performed  at  an  Inter- 
national Exhibition  in  Rome  in  1911.  At  the  Metropolitan 
performance  it  was  sung  in  an  English  version  made  by  Mr. 
Charles  Henry  Meltzer,  and  the  parts  were  distributed  as 
follows : 


Eurydice    Rita  Forr.ia 

Musica        *j 

Sylvia  >- Maria  Duchene 

Proserpina  J 

A  Nymph   Anna  Case 

Orpheus   Hermann  Weil 

Pluto  Herbert  Witherspoon 

Charon Basil  Ruysdael 

A  Shepherd Anna  Case 

Another   Shepherd    Henrietta  Wakefield 

The  archaic  novelty  was  heard  with  little  interest.  Its 
historical  significance  made  little  appeal  to  the  vast  majority 
of  the  audience,  composed  of  the  ordinary  type  of  Sunday 
night  concert-goers,  who  were  much  more  interested  in  get- 
ting as  much  as  possible  out  of  the  stars  who  sang  airs  of 
the  modern  kind  before  Monteverde's  work  was  taken  in 
hand.  These  stars  were  Mme.  Destinn  and  Signer  Amato, 
whose  admirers  kept  up  such  a  hubbub  after  each  of  their 
airs  in  their  desire  for  more  that  the  evening  was  largely 
worn  away  before  the  old  opera  could  be  begun.  By  that 
time  a  weariness  had  set  in  which  interfered  with  apprecia- 
tion of  the  beauty,  not  to  mention  the  significance,  of  the 
old  music. 


CHAPTER  XI 

AN  INCREASE  IN  TICKET  PRICES  AND  A 
SCANDAL 

THE  COST  OF  SEATS  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN  OPERA  HOUSE  AD- 
VANCED—REASON GIVEN  IN  EXPLANATION— SPECULATION  IN 
THEATER  TICKETS  IN  NEW  YORK— RELATION  BETWEEN  MAN- 
AGERS AND  SPECULATORS— ATTITUDE  OF  THE  METROPOLI- 
TAN MANAGEMENT— AGENTS  HYPOTHECATE  TICKETS  BE- 
LONGING TO  SUBSCRIBERS  —  CRIMINAL  PROCEEDINGS 
AGAINST  AN  AGENT— WHY  THEY  WERE  NOT  PROSECUTED— 
COST  OF  GIVING  OPERA  IN  NEW  YORK— SOME  COMPARATIVE 
TABLES 

AN  increase  in  the  prices  of  admission  to  all  parts  of  the 
house  except  the  dress-circle,  balcony,  and  family-circle 
was  the  incident  of  greatest  public  interest  in  the  Metropoli- 
tan season  of  1911-12  outside  the  artistic  doings  of  the  es- 
tablishment. The  advance  in  price  was  from  $5  to  $6  on  the 
seats  which  for  convenience'  sake  I  may  call  fashionable,  and 
was  sought  to  be  justified  by  the  management  on  the  ground 
of  necessity  because  of  the  growing  cost  of  the  perform- 
ances. It  was  cheerfully  accepted  by  the  public,  and  I  do 
not  know  that  it  falls  within  the  province  of  that  criticism 
which  I  have  held  to  be  an  essential  element  in  history, 
though  it  invites  an  inquiry  into  the  changes  which  have 
taken  place  within  recent  years  in  the  business  of  opera- 
giving  which  I  shall  attempt  presently  to  make.  One  of  the 
consequences  of  the  change,  however,  which  came  before 
the  beginning  of  the  season  1913-14  is  in  a  different  case, 
and  deserves  not  only  criticism  but  reprobation.  I  have 
already  alluded  to  it  as  a  scandal  which  led  up  to  prison 
gates  which  would  have  opened  had  justice  received  its  due. 
By  this  I  did  not  mean  to  imply  that  the  Metropolitan  Com- 

267 


268  UNFAIR  TREATMENT  OF  THE  PUBLIC 

pany  was  guilty  of  an  offense  against  the  penal  laws  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  but  that  by  its  employment  and  counte- 
nance of  a  system  in  connection  with  the  sale  of  subscrip- 
tion tickets  which  was  and  is  vicious  and  contrary  to  the 
good  of  the  public  it  made  possible  a  procedure  which  griev- 
ously wronged  many  of  its  most  generous  patrons,  com- 
pelled an  appeal  to  a  court  of  equity,  and  led  to  a  criminal 
inquiry.  The  procedure  was  not  only  illegal,  it  was  dis- 
tinctly criminal,  and  the  fact  that  the  only  sufferers  from  it 
were  patrons  of  the  opera,  who  should  have  been  protected 
by  the  company  at  all  hazards,  will  remain  a  "  blot  in  the 
'scutcheon  "  of  the  company  as  long  as  the  incident  is  re- 
membered, or  at  least  until  reparation  is  made  by  a  reform 
in  the  methods  which  made  a  gross  imposition  on  the  public 
possible.  There  is  no  extenuation  in  the  fact  that  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  victims  were  not  due  to  monetary  losses  (ex- 
cept in  the  case  of  the  few  who  appealed  for  protection  to 
the  courts),  but  only  to  vexation,  anxiety,  and  unnecessary 
embarrassment  and  labor. 

The  two  incidents  were  closely  related  and  may  be  com- 
bined in  the  narrative.  For  many  years  the  theater-going 
people  of  New  York  had  been  (still  are  as  I  write)  victims 
of  a  system  of  brigandage  at  which  theatrical  managers  and 
the  speculators  in  theater  tickets  have  connived.  In  the 
case  of  theaters  of  the  ordinary  type  the  imposition  by  the 
ticket  agents  of  large  premiums  upon  the  price  has  followed 
only  in  the  case  of  plays  which  have  become  established  in 
popularity.  In  such  cases  the  speculators  frequently  pur- 
chase practically  all  the  desirable  seats  in  the  house  for 
weeks  in  advance,  thus  compelling  the  public  to  buy  of  them 
and  pay  whatever  premium  the  popularity  of  the  play  en- 
ables them  to  exact.  For  the  thousands  of  transient  visit- 
ors at  the  city's  hotels  the  system  works  an  accommodation 
when  not  forced  to  the  degree  of  an  intolerable  exaction. 
For  many  regular  habitues  of  the  playhouse  it  offers  a  con- 
venience, since  many  of  them,  especially  persons  of  wealth, 


SPECULATION  IN  THEATER  TICKETS  269 

are  in  the  habit  of  maintaining  accounts  with  the  ticket 
agents  and  make  periodical  settlements  with  them  as  they 
do  with  ordinary  tradesmen.  These  are  the  advantages 
which  dealings  with  ticket  agencies  instead  of  the  box-offices 
offer  to  that  fraction  of  the  public,  a  small  one,  able  and 
willing  to  pay  for  a  favored  location  or  to  avoid  an  advance 
visit  to  the  theater.  To  the  public  in  general  it  works  noth- 
ing but  hardship,  against  which  they  should  be  protected  by 
the  laws  which  license  playhouses  and  are  supposed  to  regu- 
late the  reciprocal  duties  and  privileges  of  manager  and 
patron.  To  managers  the  system  offers  the  advantages  of 
an  advance  sale  which  sometimes  capitalizes  a  new  venture 
or  guarantees  a  season.  In  the  degree  that  it  does  these 
things  the  ordinary  manager  encourages  the  ticket  specula- 
tor frequently  to  the  extent  of  conniving  with  him  in  de- 
frauding the  public.  Ordinarily  the  ticket  agent  acts  as  a 
broker,  buying  for  his  customer  and  charging  a  commission. 
In  that  capacity  he  is  an  unexceptionable  servant  to  society 
and  may  be  regarded  even  as  a  boon  or  a  benefactor ;  the 
legitimacy  of  his  vocation  is  unquestionable.  It  is  only 
when  without  the  assistance  of  the  manager  he  becomes  an 
extortioner  that  he  also  becomes  a  nuisance  and  an  evil ; 
with  the  assistance  of  the  manager  he  sinks  to  the  status  of 
a  brigand,  the  manager  with  him,  and  the  two  become  proper 
objects  of  the  penal  code.  It  is  of  interest  in  these  chapters 
of  reminiscence  that  amidst  the  throes  of  his  operatic  dis- 
solution Mr.  Hammerstein  made  an  effort  to  secure  a  refor- 
mation of  the  evil.  It  is  not  necessary  to  credit  him  with 
altruistic  motives,  but  the  fact  is  that  he  made  an  appeal 
to  District  Attorney  (afterward  Governor)  Whitman  and 
that  at  his  instigation  a  statute  was  drafted  in  the  District 
Attorney's  office  (by  Mr.  Arthur  C.  Train,  I  believe)  de- 
signed to  regulate  the  business  of  ticket  speculation,  like 
the  ordinance  which  became  a  law  under  the  administra- 
tion of  District  Attorney  Swann  early  in  1919.  A  bill 
embodying  the  law  was  introduced  in  the  General  Assem- 


270          THE  EXTENT  OF  TICKET  SPECULATION 

bly  of  the  State,  but  influences  of  which  I  know  nothing 
prevailed  in  the  minds  of  the  State's  legislators  and  the  bill 
failed  of  passage.  The  utmost  that  w?.s  done  thereafter  by 
the  guardians  of  the  public  was  to  •  nforce,  more  or  less 
laxly,  a  municipal  ordinance  under  winch  it  was  found  to 
be  possible  to  prohibit  the  traffic  in  tickets  on  the  sidewalks 
in  front  of  the  theater  doors. 

The  reform  vainly  undertaken  by  District  Attorney  Whit- 
man to  suppress  the  evil  was  resumed  by  District  Attorney 
Swann,  who  gathered  evidence  touching  the  dealings  be- 
tween the  theater  managers  and  ticket  agents  which  dis- 
closed to  what  an  amazing  extent  the  patrons  of  the  play- 
house had  been  made  the  victims  of  managers  and  middle- 
men. Practically  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  tickets  to  theaters 
in  New  York  City,  it  was  said,  were  sold  at  the  time  by  the 
managers  to  ticket  speculators.  The  Tyson  Company  in 
the  case  of  one  production  made  a  contract  to  buy  40x3 
tickets  every  night  for  24  weeks,  the  nominal  value  of  these 
tickets  being  $120,000  and  the  price  paid  twenty-five  per 
cent.  less.  These  tickets  were  sold,  of  course,  at  as  large  a 
premium  as  the  public  demand  made  possible.  Further  tes- 
timony before  the  District  Attorney  was  to  the  effect  that 
the  Tyson  Company  sold  1,200,000  tickets  a  year;  Tyson 
and  Company  (a  different  concern),  approximately  200,000  ; 
John  McBride,  500,000;  Bascom,  Inc.,  120,000;  The  Broad- 
way Ticket  Agency,  100,000;  The  United  Theatre  Ticket 
Corporation,  110,000,  and  The  Times  Building  Ticket 
Agency,  30,000.  At  what  discount  these  tickets  were 
bought  and  at  what  advance  over  box-office  prices  they 
were  sold  need  not  detain  me  in  this  history. 

What  was  business  comparatively  in  the  little  at  the 
ordinary  theaters  a  decade  or  two  ago  had  for  a  long  time 
been  a  wholesale  business  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House. 
There  it  grew  up  under  the  influence  of  close  personal  and 
business  relations  existing  between  Maurice  Grau  and  Fred- 
erick Rullman.  An  old-time  friendship  existed  between  the 


271 

two  men,  and  the  privilege  of  buying  large  blocks  of  opera 
tickets,  which  in  time  developed  into  a  highly  advantageous 
one,  was  largely  the  reward  which  Mr.  Grau  bestowed  on  his 
friend  for  financial  aid  in  times  of  distress  and  threatened 
disaster.  Mr.  Rullman  became  a  stockholder  in  the  opera 
company  organized  by  Mr.  Grau  in  1897  and  remained  such 
until  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Grau  and  the  subsequent  organi- 
zation of  the  Conried  company.  Mr.  Rullman's  purchases  of 
opera  tickets  no  doubt  varied  in  amount  from  time  to  time, 
and  as  to  the  full  volume  of  his  business  I  am  not  informed. 
His  estate,  or  the  business  organization  which  has  succeeded 
him,  was  in  1918  a  subscriber  to  the  extent  of  $73,000  or 
more  a  season.  The  subscription  was  next  in  magnitude  to 
that  of  Tyson  and  Company,  prior  to  1911.  In  the  theaters 
it  is  the  popularity  of  a  particular  play  which  gives  stimulus 
to  sporadic  speculation.  At  the  Opera  the  bills  are  varied, 
but  the  command  of  fashion,  consorted  with  the  popular 
adoration  of  a  few  singers  and  the  whims  and  fads  of  the 
moment,  have  made  the  speculative  traffic  in  seats  a  safe 
and  profitable  venture  for  years.  In  consequence  the  ticket 
agencies  became  large  purchasers  of  season  tickets.  In  1911 
Tyson  and  Company  and  Rullman  were  said  to  have  sub- 
scribed for  about  one-half  of  all  the  fashionable  seats  in  the 
house.  They  also  bought  tickets  admitting  to  the  cheaper 
portions  of  the  auditorium.  The  terms  of  payment  were 
matters  of  private  adjustment  between  the  management  and 
the  agents,  but  the  price  was  understood  to  be  those  of  the 
box-office  less  a  rebate,  or  discount,  of  15  per  cent.  Other 
subscribers  for  the  season  were  allowed  the  same  discount, 
but  of  these  there  were  comparatively  few  outside  of  the 
stockholders  of  the  company  which  owns  the  building 
who  have  the  use  of  their  boxes  as  an  equivalent  for  the 
rental  of  the  theater.  Tyson  and  Company  and  Rullman 
were  practically  the  only  subscribers  to  all  the  subscription 
evenings  and  matinees  of  the  seasons.  They  in  turn  had 
lists  of  subscribers  for  different  days  of  the  week,  these 


?72  THE  PRICE  OF  TICKETS  RAISED 

subscribers  finding  their  advantage  in  such  a  subscription 
in  the  fact  that  they  had  accounts  with  the  agents  for  other 
tickets  as  well  and  were  sometimes  accommodated  in  the 
disposal  of  their  seats  on  occasions  which  offered  no  at- 
traction for  them  or  when  they  could  not  attend  the  opera. 
Other  subscribing  agencies  were  Tyson  and  Brother,  John 
McBride,  J.  W.  Miller  and  Tyson  and  Company. 

In  March,  1911,  the  directors  abolished  the  rebate  on 
tickets  to  subscribers,  and  Tyson  and  Company  and  Rull- 
man  announced  to  the  public  on  the  25th  of  that  month 
that  in  consequence  in  the  next  season  their  price  for  the 
orchestra  chairs  would  be  $6  instead  of  $5,  which  was  the 
box-office  price.  Simultaneously  the  management  of  the 
opera  announced  that  it  intended  to  devise  a  plan  which 
would  save  the  public  from  the  increased  charge.  This 
announcement  was  followed  on  March  31  by  a  statement 
from  the  opera  company  that  the  hotel  ticket  agencies 
would  not  be  permitted  to  charge  more  than  ten  per  cent, 
over  the  box-office  prices.  Naturally  this  left  the  public 
under  the  impression  that  purchasers  from  the  ticket 
agents  in  the  coming  season  would  be  able  to  buy  an 
orchestra  seat  for  $5.50.  In  less  than  a  fortnight,  how- 
ever (on  April  n,  to  be  exact),  the  Board  of  Directors 
of  the  opera  company  issued  an  official  announcement  that 
in  the  next  season,  that  of  1911-12,  the  price  of  stalls 
in  the  orchestra  and  orchestra-circle  would  be  advanced 
to  $6,  but  that  there  would  be  no  increase  in  the  cost  of 
admission  to  chairs  in  the  dress-circle,  balcony,  and  family- 
circle.  At  the  same  time  the  ticket  agents  were  informed 
that  their  purchases  could  be  made  but  with  a  reduction 
from  the  old  rebate.  The  information  was  given  to  the 
subscribers  in  a  circular  letter  in  which  the  reason  for 
the  advance  was  set  forth.  The  public,  it  was  said,  had 
become  more  exacting  than  formerly,  demanding  the  best 
performances  from  every  point  of  view,  whereas  they 
had  been  wont  to  be  satisfied  with  performances  if  they 


REASONS  GIVEN  FOR  THE  INCREASE  273 

had  only  included  "  some  leading  stars."  In  those  earlier 
days,  so  ran  the  argument,  "  the  production  of  opera 
involved  consequently  little  expense  aside  from  the  out- 
lay for  soloists  " ;  now  it  was  become  necessary  to  engage 
"  the  most  eminent  orchestra  conductors,  the  training  of  a 
well-equipped  cast  composed  of  high-class  artists,  a  thor- 
oughly drilled  chorus  of  the  best  obtainable  material,  mise- 
en-scene,  stage  management,  and  general  accessories  which 
will  satisfy  the  most  fastidious  demands  and  the  employ- 
ment of  a  large  and  highly  trained  corps  of  assistants  in 
all  branches  of  stage  work — all  of  which  with  the  added 
factor  of  the  general  rise  in  the  cost  of  labor  and  material 
has  caused  an  enormous  increase  in  the  expense  of  the  pro- 
duction of  opera  as  now  given  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House."  The  letter  explained  further  that  there  had  been 
a  very  heavy  loss  recurring  each  year  by  reason  of  the  things 
enumerated  and  that  this  loss  had  been  borne  entirely  by 
the  few  stockholders  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company. 
To  eliminate  this  loss  entirely  would  require  a  material 
raising  of  prices  throughout  the  house,  but  as  this  might 
mean  a  "  real  hardship "  to  the  holders  of  lower-priced 
seats  the  advance  was  confined  to  the  orchestra  and 
orchestra-circle. 

The  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  being  a  business  cor- 
poration not  subject  to  an  accounting  financially  to  the  pub- 
lic I  am  neither  able  nor  disposed  to  traverse  its  statements 
concerning  its  losses  during  the  period  of  competition  with 
the  Manhattan  Opera  House.  It  is  enough  for  present  pur- 
poses to  direct  attention  to  the  facts,  for  which  I  go  to 
its  own  prospectuses.  There  was  no  increase  of  prices  in 
1909-10  when  the  management  made  proclamation  of  a 
great  augmentation  of  artistic  forces  to  enable  it  to  give 
seasons  of  opera  in  Brooklyn,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and 
Boston,  as  well  as  at  the  New  Theater  and  the  Metropoli- 
tan in  this  city.  Then  Toscanini  and  Hertz  were  the  prin- 
cipal conductors,  the  chorus  numbered  180,  the  orchestra 


274      LARGE  PURCHASE  BY  TYSON  AND  COMPANY 

150,  and  among  the  leading  singers  were  Destinn,  Farrar, 
Alda,  Fremstad,  Gadski,  Homer,  Nordica,  Bonci,  Caruso, 
Martin,  Scotti,  Didur,  Blass,  Hinckley,  and  Witherspoon. 
In  1911-12  a  few  singers,  Bonci,  Nordica,  and  Blass  among 
them,  had  been  dropped  from  the  roster  and  as  many,  in- 
cluding Slezak,  Matzenauer,  Gilly,  Rothier,  and  Griswold, 
added;  Toscanini  and  Hertz  were  still  the  conductors,  the 
artistic  administration  remained  practically  unchanged,  but 
the  chorus  had  been  reduced  to  120  and  the  orchestra  to 
100.  Mme.  Tetrazzini,  who  had  been  announced  among  the 
prima  donnas,  sang  five  times  in  the  course  of  the  season. 
The  reduction  of  the  chorus  and  orchestra  was  a  natural 
consequence,  of  course,  of  the  abandonment  of  the  scheme 
for  giving  opera  in  Baltimore,  Washington,  Boston,  and 
other  cities  which  had  required  practically  a  double  organi- 
zation in  these  departments. 

This,  then,  was  the  posture  of  affairs  when  in  the  summer 
of  1913  Tyson  and  Company  purchased  tickets  to  the  value 
of  $157,000  for  the  approaching  season  of  opera.  Of  these 
tickets  200  or  more  were  bought  for  regular  patrons  of  the 
opera  who  had  been  accustomed  to  make  their  subscrip- 
tions through  the  agents.  The  remainder  were  bought  for 
the  usual  purposes  of  speculation.  Tyson  and  Company 
and  Rullman  were  said  at  the  time  (and  the  statement  went 
unchallenged)  to  be  purchasers  of  about  one-half  of  the 
fashionable  seats  in  the  house  and  practically  the  only 
purchasers  of  seats  for  all  of  the  subscription  performances. 
A  short  time  before  the  control  of  Tyson  and  Company  had 
passed  into  the  hands  of  Richard  J.  Hartman,  a  promoter 
of  speculative  enterprises  of  various  kinds,  who  fell  under 
suspicion  at  the  opera  house  to  such  an  extent  that  credit 
which  had  formerly  been  extended  to  the  firm  was  refused 
him.  In  the  early  days  of  September,  having  collected 
$61,000  from  their  subscribers,  Tyson  and  Company 
opened  formally  a  special  deposit  account  at  the  Metro- 
politan Trust  Company.  Wishing  to  raise  money  to  pur- 


TICKETS  PLEDGED  AS  COLLATERAL  275 

chase  more  theater  and  opera  tickets  Hartman  negotiated  a 
loan  with  the  Trust  Company  and  pledged  the  tickets  pur- 
chased from  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  as  collateral. 
With  $100,000  thus  obtained  he  liquidated  the  debt  due  to 
the  opera  company.  In  time  the  special  deposit  account 
reached  the  sum  of  $220,000,  but  the  Trust  Company  per- 
mitted Tyson  and  Company  to  draw  against  it  and  only 
two-thirds  of  the  tickets  had  been  redeemed  for  Tyson  and 
Company's  subscribers  when  they  were  confronted  by  the 
fact  that  the  opera  season  was  about  to  open  and  that 
they  were  unable  to  meet  their  obligations  to  their  patrons. 
Subscribers  who  went  to  Tyson  and  Company  with  their 
receipts  and  demands  for  their  tickets  were  informed  that 
they  could  not  deliver  them,  as  they  were  in  the  hands  of 
the  Trust  Company,  which  held  a  lien  on  them. 

The  dilemma  in  which  the  subscribers  to  the  opera  were 
placed  by  the  action  of  Tyson  and  Company  and  the  opera 
and  trust  companies  was  a  peculiar  one  and  not  without  its 
diverting  side,  though  few  of  those  concerned  were  in  a 
mood  to  see  anything  humorous  in  it.  For  years  there  had 
been  much  complaint  on  the  part  of  persons  who  had  found 
it  impossible  to  secure  seats  at  the  opera  house  because 
of  the  fact  that  practically  all  the  desirable  stalls  were  sub- 
scribed for,  especially  on  the  nights,  made  popular  by  fad, 
fashion,  and  a  singer  or  two,  which  were  always  announced 
as  sold  out  as  soon  as  the  weekly  sale  opened.  At  these 
poor  souls  the  customers  of  the  ticket  agents  were  in  a 
position  to  smile  commiseratingly  or  derisively  as  their  dis- 
positions prompted.  Suddenly  it  appeared  that  these  fortu- 
nate and  much-envied  beings  had  been  living  in  a  fools' 
paradise.  They  had  imagined  that  they  were  subscribers  to 
the  opera,  but  found  that  they  were  only  customers  of 
brokers  against  whom  they  were  powerless  to  enforce  the 
most  ordinary  kind  of  business  contract — to  compel  de- 
livery of  goods  bought  and  paid  for.  Consternation  seized 
them  at  the  prospect  of  not  being  able  to  take  part  in  the 


276     WERE  SPECULATORS  AGENTS  OF  COMPANY? 

social  function  which  marks  the  opening  of  the  operatic  sea- 
son. That  opening  was  only  a  day  or  two  distant.  Some 
subscribers  evolved  the  theory  that  the  custom  of  many 
years  and  the  acts  of  the  opera  company  had  made  Tyson 
and  Company  agents  of  the  opera  company.  Had  not  Lord 
Chief  Justice  Coke  laid  down  the  maxim,  Qui  facit  per 
alium  facit  per  se,  and  was  there  not  evidence  that  Tyson 
and  Company  were  agents  of  the  opera  company  in  the 
fact  that  the  letters  which  had  been  sent  out  to  subscribers 
with  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  heading  telling  them. of 
the  reason  of  the  increase  in  prices  in  1910,  also  told  of  the 
reallotment  to  the  agencies  of  the  seats  thitherto  held  by 
them,  and  another  dated  April,  1912,  offering  to  renew  the 
subscription  of  patrons  and  concluding  with  the  suggestion 
that  all  communications  be  sent  to  Tyson  and  Company? 
The  opera  company  said  that  it  was  not  responsible  for 
the  use  which  Tyson  and  Company  had  made  of  its  circular 
letter,  but  the  inference  seemed  clear  and  some  of  the  per- 
sons who  held  the  not  unnatutal  view  proposed  to  test  the 
validity  of  the  proposition  by  presenting  their  receipts  to 
the  opera  officials  and  demanding  admission  to  their  seats. 
But  they  were  forestalled  by  an  official  announcement  of  the 
opera  company  which  was  curt  and  to  the  point :  "  The 
Metropolitan  Opera  Company  begs  to  announce  that  it  will 
honor  only  the  regular  tickets  issued  by  the  Opera  Com- 
pany." 

Meanwhile  the  opera  opening  was  approaching.  The  trust 
company  opened  an  office  at  the  Manhattan  Hotel,  where 
it  offered  an  opportunity  to  subscribers  who  could  pro- 
duce evidence  that  they  had  paid  for  their  tickets  to  rebuy 
the  same  tickets  at  a  small  discount  (50  cents  on  $6),  add- 
ing the  threat  that  tickets  not  "  taken  up  "  would  be  put  on 
sale  to  the  public  on  noon  of  November  17,  the  first  night 
of  the  season.  Loud  and  indignant  protests  followed  this 
action,  but  to  all  complaints  the  assistant  treasurer  of  the 
trust  company  replied  that  all  the  subscribers  owned  was  a 


TICKETS  WITHHELD  FROM  SUBSCRIBERS         277 

contract  with  Tyson  and  Company,  that  the  latter  would 
deliver  tickets,  while  the  trust  company,  having  taken  the 
tickets  as  collateral  for  a  loan,  would  protect  itself  by 
realizing  on  them.  Mr.  Edmund  L.  Baylies,  of  counsel  for 
the  trust  company,  but  also  a  member  of  the  Board  of 
Directors  of  the  opera  company,  stated  the  attitude  of  his 
client  to  be  that  Tyson  and  Company  never  had  a  clear 
title  to  the  tickets,  which  he  said  had  been  delivered  in  per- 
son by  an  employee  of  the  opera  company  to  the  trust  com- 
pany in  the  presence  of  Hartman.  The  ticket  agents  never 
having  a  clear  title  but  only  one  subject  to  lien,  the  sub- 
scribers had  never  acquired  a  title  of  any  kind,  clear  or 
clouded.  In  short  they  had  bought  a  right  of  action  against 
Tyson  and  Company  and  nothing  more.  With  this  state- 
ment Mr.  T.  De  Witt  Cuyler,  a  member  of  the  directorates 
of  both  the  opera  and  trust  companies,  took  issue.  He  de- 
nied that  he  had  knowledge  of  the  intended  hypothecation 
and  said  that  on  September  14  Hartman  went  to  the  opera 
house  in  a  taxicab  and  gave  the  management  a  check  for 
$100,000,  whereupon  Earl  Lewis,  an  employee  of  the  con- 
troller's office,  "under  instructions"  accompanied  Hartman 
to  the  office  of  the  trust  company  to  have  the  check  certified 
before  releasing  the  tickets.  Mr.  Beverly  Chew,  an  assistant 
vice-president  of  the  trust  company,  met  this  statement 
with  a  flat  denial.  "  The  tickets  were  delivered  to  me  in  my 
office  by  an  official  of  the  opera  company  and  the  check 
was  passed  in  the  same  place."  He  would  not  say  that  the 
opera  company  knew  that  the  tickets  were  to  be  hypothe- 
cated, but  Mr.  Cuyler  was  present  at  the  meeting  of  the 
executive  committee  of  the  trust  company  when  the  loan 
was  approved. 

Tyson  and  Company,  the  center  of  the  storm  area,  were 
bestirring  themselves  to  get  the  tickets  released  at  least 
for  the  first  night.  They  offered  to  redeem  the  tickets  for 
the  opening  performance,  but  the  trust  company  rejected 
the  offer  as  unfair  to  the  other  subscribers.  An  indignation 


278  CRIMINAL  PROCEEDINGS  BEGUN 

meeting  was  held  on  the  forenoon  of  November  17,  open- 
ing day,  and  a  committee  of  subscribers  appointed  to  lay 
the  case  before  the  prosecuting  attorney  of  the  county. 
Then  one  hundred  indignant  victims  of  the  swindle  de- 
scended on  the  office  of  the  trust  company  to  demand  their 
tickets.  There  they  learned  that  Tyson  and  Company  had 
raised  $2,800  with  which  to  secure  the  release  of  the  tickets 
for  the  first  week.  Twenty-six  subscribers  who  had  paid 
a  second  time  received  a  refund  of  their  money.  Two  ener- 
getic individuals  had  secured  their  tickets  by  action  .in 
replevin  and  the  sky  became  overcast  with  threats  of  legal 
proceedings  of  various  kinds.  The  District  Attorney  now 
took  a  hand  in  the  matter,  and  on  November  19  Hartman, 
as  the  head  of  Tyson  and  Company,  was  haled  before  a 
police  magistrate  on  a  charge  of  grand  larceny.  Mr.  Lewis 
testified  to  facts  like  those  recited  by  Mr.  Cuyler,  with  the 
modification  that  he  had  made  delivery  of  the  tickets  at  the 
opera  house  on  receiving  the  check  and  had  accompanied 
Hartman  in  the  taxicab  called  by  the  latter  on  his  invita- 
tion to  ride  along  since  they  were  going  to  the  same  place. 
There  was  no  evidence  in  contradiction  and  the  magistrate 
held  Tyson  and  Company  for  the  grand  jury.  Then  the 
representative  of  the  District  Attorney  announced  that  on 
the  evidence  the  status  of  the  trust  company  was  that  of  a 
receiver  of  stolen  goods, — an  obvious  deduction  and  a 
determinative.  The  case  was  not  pressed  to  an  indictment. 
Why?  If  I  were  to  venture  an  explanation  which  is  some- 
thing more  than  a  shrewd  guess  it  would  be  this :  before  the 
end  of  the  week  the  patrons  of  Tyson  and  Company  re- 
ceived their  tickets  without  more  ado ;  their  rights  had  been 
secured;  the  prosecuting  officer  did  not  think  himself  justi- 
fied in  sending  a  man  to  jail  on  evidence  concerning  which 
he  was  himself  skeptical ;  and  the  scandal  came  to  an  end. 
At  a  later  day  Hartman's  rascality  came  out  in  a  new  charge 
of  misappropriation  of  a  client's  funds,  and  on  that  he  was 
convicted  and  sentenced  to  state  prison  for  a  term  of  seven 


WHY   THE   PROSECUTION   WAS   DROPPED        279 

years.  On  January  3,  1914,  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Com- 
pany, whose  only  concern  in  the  matter  seemed  to  be  to 
keep  its  skirts  clean  of  everything  except  the  bona  fide  sale 
of  tickets  and  the  delivery  of  the  goods  to  Tyson  and  Com- 
pany, announced  that  thenceforth  persons  subscribing 
through  the  various  ticket  agencies  might  transfer  their  sub- 
scriptions to  the  Company  or  continue  them  through  the 
agencies.  Only  10  per  cent,  of  the  subscribers  availed 
themselves  of  the  invitation,  and  the  old  system  was  re- 
stored, though  the  opera  company  prohibited  a  charge 
larger  than  that  of  the  box-office  for  subscription  tickets ; 
over  sales  other  than  subscriptions  it  did  not  attempt  to  as- 
sume control. 

As  a  sequel  to  the  chapter  of  history  concerned  with  the 
increase  in  prices  of  admission  in  1911  I  purpose  now  to 
conduct  an  inquiry,  limited  in  scope  (not  because  of  any 
unwillingness  on  my  part  but  because  the  avenues  of  infor- 
mation are  few  and  narrow),  into  the  cost  of  opera-giving 
in  New  York  which  was  alleged  to  be  the  reason  for  the 
advance.  This  increase  was  effected  by  means  of  the 
devious  device  of  first  abolishing  the  rebate  allowed  to  sub- 
scribers, thus  leading  the  speculators  to  announce  an  ad- 
vance in  prices  of  from  $5  to  $6,  then  proclaiming  the 
latter  sum  to  be  the  standard  and  restoring  a  rebate  to  the 
agents  but  not  to  patrons  who  made  their  subscriptions 
through  the  box-office  unless  they  were  season  subscrip- 
tions. Whether  or  not  this  led  to  the  fortification  of  the 
system  of  speculation  which  became  an  almost  intolerable 
evil  I  leave  to  the  judgment  of  the  readers  of  the  history 
who  are  willing  to  read  in  the  light  of  the  facts  disclosed 
by  the  scandals  which  followed  hard  on  the  heels  of  the 
advance  as  I  have  related  them. 

In  order  that  there  may  be  no  misconception  of  the  mo- 
tives underlying  the  inquiry  let  me  add  that  during  the 
last  decade  and  longer  there  had  been  a  persistent  proclama- 
tion of  altruistic  purposes  as  distinguished  from  selfish  com- 


28o  ALTRUISM  AND  BUSINESS 

mercialism  on  the  part  of  the  directors  of  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  Company.  It  was  the  burden  of  the  song  chanted  in 
the  newspaper  interviews  by  both  parties  in  the  course  of 
the  struggle  between  the  Metropolitan  Company  and  Mr. 
Hammerstein  when  the  rivalry  between  the  Metropolitan 
and  Manhattan  houses  was  at  its  height.  When  Mr.  Ham- 
merstein attempted  to  re-establish  this  rivalry  in  defiance  of 
an  agreement  to  remain  out  of  the  operatic  field  for  ten 
years,  it  became  a  note  in  the  legal  proceedings  successfully 
prosecuted  to  enjoin  him  from  carrying  out  his  purpose. 
Public  sympathy  and  judicial  decree  were  asked  on  the 
ground  that  the  public  good,  not  private  gain,  was  the  aim 
of  the  generous  gentlemen  who  are  maintaining  an  insti- 
tution which  is  unquestionably  an  elegant  and  lordly  orna- 
ment of  our  civic  and  social  life.  To  review  some  of  the 
details  of  the  administration  of  the  institution  which  has 
thus  been  proclaimed  as  a  beautiful  and  beneficial  public 
trust  can  therefore  be  looked  upon  as  a  proper  privilege  and 
laudable  purpose  to  which  even  an  altruistic  aim  might  be 
attributed  if  I  were  to  choose  to  claim  it. 

During  the  last  two  generations  the  price  of  admission  to 
the  opera  has  been  increased  from  400  to  600  per  centum. 
In  some  of  its  features,  I  make  no  doubt,  the  increase  in  the 
cost  of  opera-giving  has  grown  in  proportion  with  the 
charge  for  its  enjoyment.  It  would  be  interesting  to  in- 
quire into  the  causes  of  the  increase  in  cost  and  also  to 
attempt  to  determine  whether  or  not  the  advance  in  artistic 
achievement  bears  any  reasonable  ratio  to  the  increase  in 
cost  to  the  givers  of  opera  and  its  patrons ;  but  this  would 
be  a  more  formidable  task  than  I  am  ready  to  undertake 
and  one  which  the  policy  of  reticence  pursued  by  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  Company  concerning  their  financial  affairs 
(a  policy  which  is  their  unqualified  right)  makes  impossible 
to  one  not  concerned  in  it.  The  only  basis  which  we  have 
for  such  a  comparative  study  is  provided  by  the  reports 
which  were  placed  at  my  disposal  for  public  use  during 


COST  OF  OPERA  IN  BYGONE  DAYS       281 

several  years  when  the  owners  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House  were  also  the  purveyors  of  the  entertainment,  and  a 
report  concerning  two  seasons  which,  for  a  purpose  still 
incomprehensible  to  me,  Mr.  Conried  made  in  the  spring 
of  1906.  These,  and  these  only,  are  open  to  me  for 
analysis. 

There  was  a  period,  not  an  ignoble  one  either,  when  the 
public  paid  much  less  to  attend  the  opera  in  its  fashionable 
home  than  they  do  now  to  enjoy  the  most  modest  theatrical 
entertainments — barring  the  moving-picture  shows.  When 
the  Academy  of  Music  was  new,  in  1854,  Max  Maretzek 
rented  the  house  for  a  space  to  Mr.  Hackett,  then  manager 
of  an  opera  company  headed  by  Mme.  Grisi  and  Signer 
Mario,  two  of  the  most  refulgent  stars  that  ever  blazed  in 
the  operatic  firmament.  Counting  on  their  power  of  attrac- 
tion coupled  with  that  of  the  new  house,  Mr.  Hackett 
charged  $3  for  the  parquet  (orchestra)  stalls  and  from 
$12  to  $40  for  the  boxes.  These  prices  the  public  thought 
exorbitant  and  showed  its  resentment  by  staying  away  from 
the  performance  on  the  first  night.  Maretzek,  who  made 
record  of  the  fact,  said  that  the  audience  numbered  only 
1,500.  Mr.  Hackett  promptly  reduced  his  prices  one-half 
for  the  second  night,  and  this  price  was  still  further  re- 
duced to  $i  and  kept  there  till  Mr.  Maretzek  plucked  up 
enough  courage  to  raise  it  to  $1.50.  This  was  the  price,  I 
believe,  when  the  high  cost  of  living  during  the  Civil  War 
affected  also  the  cost  of  giving  opera ;  but  it  remained  at 
$3  until  the  advent  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  I 
believe.  If  it  was  advanced  to  $5  for  the  first  season  of 
Italian  opera,  about  which  I  have  no  time  to  inquire  at  this 
juncture,  it  was  reduced  to  $4  and  remained  there  through- 
out the  German  regime — that  is,  from  1884-85  to  1890-91. 
On  the  return  of  Messrs.  Abbey  and  Grau,  and  during  the 
successive  administrations  from  that  time  down  to  1911,  the 
standard  price  was  $5,  with  $2.50  as  the  unit  at  the  popular 
Saturday  nights. 


282  INCREASE  WITHIN  A  GENERATION 

I  shall  publish  at  the  end  of  this  chapter  a  tabulated  state- 
ment touching  the  cost  of  giving  opera  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  during  five  seasons,  from  which  it  will  be 
possible  to  see  to  some  extent  in  which  departments  the 
cost  of  giving  opera  has  grown  abnormally  enormous. 
Comparisons  between  the  different  years  can  not  be  made 
definitely  except  as  regards  certain  details  for  the  reason 
that  the  operatic  seasons  differed  in  length,  and  in  the 
years  of  Mr.  Grau's  management  (1902-03)  and  Mr.  Con- 
ried's  (1904-05)  the  cost  of  giving  opera  outside  of  New 
York  is  included.  It  is  equally  impossible  accurately  to 
appraise  past  and  present  artistic  results  for  the  reason  that 
while  the  German  seasons  developed  a  list  of  operas  which 
have  remained  current  for  twenty-five  years  the  list  has 
been  at  least  temporarily  disarranged  by  a  change  of  policy 
caused  by  the  war.  Assuming,  however,  that  German  operas 
will  some  day  be  restored  to  the  Metropolitan  repertory  in 
all  their  puissance  it  remains  a  significant  reflection  that 
during  the  seven  years  when  the  owners  of  the  opera  house 
gave  opera  on  their  own  account,  as  many  if  not  more 
permanent  additions  were  made  to  the  Metropolitan  list  as 
during  the  combined  consulships  of  Conried  and  Gatti.  I 
am  omitting  works  familiar  to  the  public  before  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  House  was  opened  and  which  might  appear 
in  both  lists,  but  as  to  the  quality  of  new  works  compare 
"Fidelio,"  "Die  Meistersinger,"  "Tristan  und  Isolde," 
"  Das  Rheingold,"  "  Die  Walkiire,"  "  Siegfried,"  "  Gotter- 
dammerung,"  and  "  Konigin  von  Saba  "  of  the  Stanton  list 
with  "  Francesca  da  Rimini,"  "  Hansel  und  Gretel,"  "  K6- 
nigskinder,"  "  Madame  Sans-Gene,"  "  Prince  Igor,"  "  Boris 
Godounoff,"  "  Rosenkavalier,"  and  "  Parsifal,"  to  which  I 
am  inclined  to  allot  a  measure  of  endurance  in  the  Conried- 
Gatti  list. 

The  average  cost  of  giving  opera  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  in  1918  I  am  told  was  over  $10,000  a  night. 
In  1886-87  it  was  $4,903,  which  I  believe  included  the  cost 


WAS  THE  INCREASE  JUSTIFIED?  283 

of  maintaining  the  building.  In  1887-88  it  was  $4,4325  in 
1888-89,  $5,224;  in  1889-90,  $5,386;  in  1890-91,  $6,480.  In 
all  these  years,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind,  the  cost  of  an 
orchestra  seat  was  $4  as  against  the  present  price  of  $6.  I 
print  the  tables  referred  to  given  out  by  Mr.  Conried  in 
March,  1906,  and  three  tables  showing  the  cost  of  opera  in 
as  many  season  during  the  German  regime.  It  will  require 
some  speculation  to  find  points  for  comparison  in  some  de- 
partments, but  in  others  there  are  some  pretty  obvious  and 
equally  significant.  Inside  of  fifteen  years  the  cost  of  the 
orchestra,  for  instance,  was  doubled  while  that  of  the  com- 
bined chorus  and  ballet  remained  practically  unaltered.  We 
may  surmise  that  the  cost  of  principal  singers  has  been 
largely  increased,  but  we  are  at  a  loss  for  specific  informa- 
tion because  the  salaries  of  conductors  are  included  in  the 
item  "  artists  and  staff  "  in  the  later  tables.  It  is  saying 
nothing  new,  however,  to  say  that  conductors,  stage-man- 
agers, and  ballet-masters  combined  (with  men  like  Anton 
Seidl  and  Walter  Damrosch  wielding  the  baton)  did  not 
cost  as  much  in  the  German  years  as  any  single  first  con- 
ductor since  the  days  of  Conried.  The  royalties  account  is 
smaller  in  the  later  regime  than  in  the  earlier,  which  would 
be  inexplicable  did  we  not  know  that  Mr.  Stanton  paid 
royalties  not  obligatory  under  the  law  for  the  use  of  the 
Wagnerian  dramas.  The  increase  in  wardrobe  and  proper- 
ties is  inconsiderable,  a  fact  partly  due  to  the  natural  ac- 
cumulation of  such  assets,  but  in  transportation  prodigious 
— due,  of  course,  to  the  policy  of  giving  performances  out- 
side of  New  York  City. 

It  is  in  the  light  reflected  by  these  figures  that  the  state- 
ments made  in  1911  to  justify  the  increase  in  the  price  of 
admission  must  be  read.  These  statements  were  that  the 
cost  of  production  had  grown  so  high  above  the  receipts  as 
to  become  a  burden  on  the  stockholders  of  the  company  be- 
cause the  taste  of  the  public  had  come  to  demand  not  more 
costly  solo  singers  but  more  eminent  conductors,  a  better 


284 


STATISTICS  FROM  THE  GERMAN  PERIOD 


and  larger  orchestra  (though  the  orchestra  was  only  two- 
thirds  as  large  after  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Hammerstein  as 
it  was  in  1910),  a  larger  and  better  chorus  (though  that 
was  reduced  one-third  in  numbers  as  soon  as  the  rivalry 
came  to  an  end),  more  elaborate  scenery,  more  efficient 
stage  management  (though  Mr.  Conried  brought  such  emi- 
nent craftsmen  as  Fuchs  and  Lautenschlager  to  his  aid) 
than  used  to  suffice,  besides  a  large  increase  in  the  cost  of 
material  and  labor,  an  item  which  is  incontestable.  The 
matter  of  principal  singers  was  waived,  but  here  are  two 
rosters  brought  into  juxtaposition.  Mr.  Grau's  last  com- 
pany: Mmes.  Sembrich,  Eames,  Homer,  and  Messrs.  Burg- 
staller,  Dippel,  Reiss,  Miihlmann,  Scotti,  Van  Rooy,  Blass, 
Journet,  Plangon,  and  Rossi;  Mr.  Gatti's  company  in  1911- 
12:  Mmes.  Farrar,  Destinn,  Fremstad,  Gadski,  and  Mat- 
zenauer,  and  Messrs.  Caruso,  Amato,  Gilly,  Burrian,  Weil, 
Witherspoon,  Jadlowker,  Hinshaw,  and  Griswold.  There 
is  no  need  to  mention  artists  who  were  concerned  in  both 
regimes. 

COST  OF  OPERA  PRODUCTION  IN  THE  GERMAN 
PERIOD 


Salaries   of   artists      I] 

1886-87 

>I2I,OOO.OO 

1887-88 

$105  182  oo 

1888-89 

$1  ^  4O8  ~\2 

Orchestra    

4O,OOO.OO 

42  /jnR  7C 

46  206OO 

Chorus    

25,000.00 

23,962.75 

26,  20=;  .00 

Ballet    

I9,OOO.OO 

16,567.33 

1  7,869.00 

Conductors,   stage-managers, 
ballet-masters    etc  

13,000.00 

24,067.  n 

13,17600 

Front  of  the  house  

2O.OOO.OO 

16,423.76 

Advertising      

l6,OOO.OO 

11,176.47 

12,781.13 

Transportation    

1  1  ,000.00 

8,317.82 

10,481.56 

Stage    hands        

Q,=;OO.OO 

0,244.  t;  i 

10,174.62 

Wardrobe  department   .    ... 

6,900.00 

1,004.96 

Property   department    

4.  =io6.OO 

4,427.42 

9,280.17 

Royalties     .         

2,500.00 

9,606  52 

7  176.  TO 

Totals    $288,406.00        $275,379.62        $289,138.39 


COMPARISON  OF  LATER  PERIODS  285 

COST  OF  OPERA  PRODUCTION  IN  ONE  SEASON  UNDER 
MR.  GRAU  AND  ONE  UNDER  MR.  CONRIED 

1902-03  1904-05 

Artists  and  staff   $522,315.13  $544,153.11 

Chorus,  ballet,  and  supers   41,386.89  66,212.13 

Orchestra  and   stage-band    85,569.29  95,083.40 

Steamship   transportation    16,799.60  20,656.07 

Railway  transportation,  transfer  of  scenery, 

baggage,  hotels,  etc 36,209.52  72,687.30 

Costumes,  wardrobe  department,  and  wigs     18,110.59  15,953-83 

Music    and    royalties    3,517.16  3,499-67 

Commissions   and   sundries    2,356.62  4,371.54 

Advertising 16,566.91  25,167.42 


Totals    $743,031.71        $847,783.97 


CHAPTER  XII 

ANOTHER  EXPERIMENT  WITH  ENGLISH  OPERA 
AND  A  GREAT  RUSSIAN  WORK 

THE  SEASON  OF  1912-13— ADDITIONS  TO  THE  METROPOLITAN 
COMPANY— MABEL  GARRISON,  MELANIE  KURT,  JOHANNES 
SEMBACH,  LUCA  BOTTA,  AND  ARTHUR  MIDDLETOX— ROS- 
TAND'S "CYRANO  DE  BERGERAC"  DONE  INTO  AN  ENGLISH 
OPERA— MOUSSORGSKY'S  "BORIS  GODOUNOVV "— A  VISIT 
FROM  THE  CHICAGO  OPERA  COMPANY  BRINGS  NOVELTIES— 
ZANDONAI'S  "CONCHITA"  AND  "  LES  RANZ  DES  VACHES," 
A  GERMAN  VERSION  OF  KIENZL'S  "  KUHREIGEN " 

THE  progress  of  the  season  1912-13  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  was  serene  and  uneventful,  save  in  the  artistic 
field.  Fortune  smiled  upon  it  from  beginning  to  end. 
The  mishaps  to  which  operatic  institutions  are  prone  were 
few.  If  there  were  contentions  in  the  administrative  or 
artistic  ranks  the  fact  was  not  permitted  to  reach  the  pub- 
lic, the  old  desire  to  "  rush  into  print "  having  disappeared 
with  the  settlement  of  the  Metropolitan-Manhattan  feud, 
when  such  a  proceeding  was  "  good  advertising."  The  char- 
acter of  the  season,  artistically,  was  like  that  of  its  predeces- 
sors and  successors.  The  popular  adoration  of  a  few  gifted 
singers  continued,  and  had  much  to  do  with  stamping  a  too 
familiar  physiognomy  upon  the  repertory — and  the  audience. 
The  management  redeemed  some  of  its  promises  and  failed 
to  keep  others ;  but  there  was  nothing  new  in  that,  and  if 
the  reasons  were  fit  subjects  for  historical  discussion  they 
were  not  disclosed.  There  was,  however,  much  rejoicing 
over  the  manner  in  which  two  promises  were  kept — the  pro- 
duction of  an  American  and  a  Russian  novelty — "  Cyrano 
de  Bergerac  "  and  "  Boris  Godounow  " — so  much  rejoicing, 
indeed,  that  the  unperformed  list  was  forgotten.  If  in  the 

286 


NEW  SINGERS  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN  287 

distribution  of  operas  between  those  offered  to  the  general 
public  as  distinguished  from  the  general  subscribers  the 
action  of  Mr.  Gatti  could  be  looked  upon  as  more  significant 
than  ordinary  it  was  because  there  seemed  to  be  a  more 
heavy  leaning  than  had  been  wont  upon  that  element  of  so- 
ciety which  was  fond  of  Wagner's  dramas;  for  the  rela- 
tion between  Italian  and  German  operas  was  more  than  re- 
versed— it  was  revolutionized.  This,  however,  may  better 
be  studied  in  the  record  of  the  season  which  appears  in  the 
Appendix  to  this  book. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  two  seasons  immediately  preceding 
there  were  subscription  seasons  also  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  for  the  Chicago-Philadelphia  company — four 
successive  Tuesdays  beginning  on  February  4.  In  the  list 
of  visitors  were  two  novelties,  "  Conchita  "  and  "  Le  Ranz 
des  Vaches,"  of  which  something  must  be  said  presently. 
The  other  operas  were  "  Louise  "  and  "  Thais."  Previous 
to  this  visit  the  company  came  from  Philadelphia  to  bestow 
upon  New  York  the  boon  of  a  performance  of  "  Hamlet " 
with  a  sensational  baritone,  Titta  Ruffo,  in  the  titular  part. 
The  singer  made  good  his  reputation  but  left  no  hunger 
for  his  continued  presence  among  the  patrons  of  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  House.  He  was  speedily  forgotten.  Signifi- 
cant names  among  those  added  to  the  Metropolitan  roster 
were  those  of  Mabel  Garrison,  Melanie  Kurt,  Johannes 
Sembach,  Luca  Botta,  and  Arthur  Mid,dleton.  Miss  Gar- 
rison, an  American,  is  a  native  of  Baltimore  who  had  had 
a  short  experience  in  English  opera;  Melanie  Kurt  came 
from  Berlin,  where  she  had  been  dramatic  soprano  at  the 
Royal  Imperial  Opera  for  six  years ;  Johannes  Sembach 
had  come  into  notice  by  singing  in  the  performances  of 
"  Parsifal "  and  "  Die  Meistersinger  "  at  the  Theatre  des 
Champs-Elysees ;  Luca  Botta,  a  youthful  tenor,  had  not  at- 
tracted large  attention  then,  nor  has  he  since  though  he  re- 
mains a  member  of  the  company;  Mr.  Middleton  was  an 
American  concert  baritone  who  hailed  from  Iowa. 


288    "  CYRANO  DE  BERGERAC  "  AS  AN  OPERA 

There  remains  considerable  to  say  about  the  novelties. 
"  Cyrano  de  Bergerac,"  the  text  by  William  J.  Henderson 
after  Rostand's  play,  the  music  by  Walter  Damrosch,  had 
its  first  performance  on  the  evening  of  February  27,  1913, 
under  the  direction  of  Alfred  Hertz.     The  opera  had  not 
had  the  adventitious  help  of  nation-wide  advertising  nor  a 
regal  prize ;  yet  its  advent  was  heralded  as  a  triumph  and,  in 
spite   of   the  criticisms  of   kindly  disposed   reviewers,   its 
authors   were  given  to   understand   that   their   work   was 
looked  upon,  officially,  as  something  more  and  better  than 
a  tentative  experiment.    Yet,  like  "  Mona  "  it  went  into  the 
lumber-room  at  the  end  of  the  season.    It  was  not  the  first- 
fruit  of  forced,  hot-house  culture.    The  purpose  to  write  it 
had  been  formed  by  Mr.  Damrosch  ten  years  before.     He 
had  secured  the  collaboration  of  Mr.  Henderson,  and  after 
the  latter  gentleman  had  put  the  libretto  into  his  hands  he 
took  up  its  composition  while  resting  from  the  labors  of 
conducting.     Having  composed  practically  all  of  the  music 
he  applied  the  Horatian  adage  to  his  work  and  left  it  alone 
for  nine  years.     Then  he  took  it  up  again  and  gave  its 
first  act  an  improvised  trial  at  his  home.     Mr.  Gatti  heard 
the  trial  and  agreed  to  produce  the  opera  at  the  Metro- 
politan.    After  Mr.   Damrosch  had  rewritten  the   fourth 
act  the  opera  was  produced  on  February  27,  1913.     To  a 
Tribune  reporter  the  composer  had  explained  that  there  was 
more  Italian  and  French  influence  in  the  music  than  Ger- 
man; that  in  the  first  act  he  had  harked  back  to  Rameau; 
that  to  some  extent  he  had  used  the  Wagnerian  system  of 
typical  themes  and  that  the  musical  symbol  for  Cyrano's 
celebrated  nose  was  in  the  whole-tone  scale  (although  he 
had  written  it  before  Debussy  was  widely  known)  so  that 
it  might  stand  out  in  the  music  as  did  the  huge  proboscis 
from  the  hero's  face.    Roxane  being  a  precieuse,  her  music 
was  at  first  of  the  florid  kind,  but  became  serious  and  even 
tragic  as  her  love  developed. 

There  were  gladsome  incidents  at  the  first  performance, 


WILLIAM  J.  HENDERSON 
Librettist  of  "Cyrano  de  Bergerac' 


FIRST  PERFORMANCE  OF  MR.  DAMROSCH'S  OPERA      289 

including  nine  curtain  calls  after  the  first  act  for  com- 
poser, librettist,  conductor,  singers,  and  so  on.  After  the 
balcony  scene  the  composer  made  a  speech  and  after  the 
final  curtain  he  made  another.  He  said  that  as  his  father 
had  been  the  first  to  introduce  German  opera  in  this  coun- 
try so  he  hoped  he  had  helped  to  lay  the  foundation-stone 
of  a  type  of  opera  which  should  prove  as  popular  as  German 
opera  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House.  Perhaps  the  ela- 
tion of  the  moment  may  be  pleaded  in  extenuation  for  Mr. 
Damrosch's  faulty  history.  As  a  matter  of  fact  German 
opera  in  German  had  been  fighting  its  way  toward  recogni- 
tion for  nearly  thirty-nine  years  when  Dr.  Leopold  Dam- 
rosch  began  his  memorable  experiment  at  the  Metropolitan. 
It  was  given  on  extra  nights  in  the  Italian  seasons  of  Max 
Maretzek  at  the  Academy  of  Music;  Bergmann  and  An- 
schiitz  had  conducted  many  performances ;  Carlotta  Patti 
had  traveled  through  the  country  at  the  head  of  a  company 
that  produced  "  Die  Zauberflote ;  "  Parepa  and  Lucca  had 
sung  in  German  performances,  and  theaters  in  other  cities 
than  New  York  had  echoed  to  the  strains  of  "  Martha," 
"  Stradella,"  "  Fidelio,"  "  Tannhauser,"  "  Lohengrin,"  and 
"  Der  Fliegende  Hollander."  "  Die  Walkiire  "  was  per- 
formed at  the  Academy  of  Music  at  a  Wagner  festival  in 

1877- 

Mr.  Otto  H.  Kahn  told  the  newspaper  reporters  after 
the  performance  that  he  thought  the  opera  would  stay  in 
the  repertory  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  and  that 
thereafter  the  Metropolitan  Company  would  produce  any 
American  opera  which  had  anything  like  the  merits  of 
"  Cyrano."  Mr.  Henderson's  mind  preserved  its  habitually 
normal  temperature.  In  his  review  of  the  season  pub- 
lished in  The  Sun  newspaper  he  said  that  he  thought  it 
tolerably  certain  that  no  one  was  better  aware  of  the  mis- 
takes made  in  the  composition  of  the  opera  than  Mr.  Dam- 
rosch.  In  its  original  state  it  was  too  long  and  numerous 
cuts  were  found  to  be  necessary  in  the  rehearsals.  While 


2QO         MERITS  AND  DEFECTS  OF  THE  LIBRETTO 

these  served  to  reduce  the  performance  to  a  reasonable  time 
they  did  unmistakable  damage  to  the  structure.  If  the 
opera  should  be  retained  in  the  repertory  he  thought  it  likely 
that  the  third  act,  which  had  been  robbed  of  its  continuity 
and  dramatic  purpose,  would  be  rewritten. 

To  what  extent  Mr.  Henderson  was  to  blame  for  the 
defects  of  the  opera  I  shall  not  undertake  to  appraise.  In 
speaking  of  the  difficulties  of  declamation  I  think  he  as- 
sumed too  large  a  share  of  blame,  for  in  his  lyrical  para- 
phrase of  Rostand's  play  I  found  an  admirable  measure  of 
that  combination  of  qualities  which  are  essential  to  the  effi- 
ciency of  a  lyrical  drama  in  any  language.  His  book  dis- 
closed a  knowledge  of  the  art  of  song,  of  the  demands  of 
the  theater,  and  of  the  needs  of  a  composer.  As  a  critic 
of  large  experience  he  might,  perhaps,  have  guarded  against 
the  diffuseness  which  he  himself  condemned  so  frankly, 
but  he  could  not  know  what  method  the  composer  would 
follow  in  the  setting.  As  for  Mr.  Damrosch,  he  showed 
a  common  failing  of  composers,  even  composers  of  large 
experience, — a  failure  to  realize,  while  writing,  how  long 
his  work  would  be  in  the  performance.  The  operation  of 
reducing  a  score  once  it  is  done  is  a  painful  one  to  a  com- 
poser. History  tells  us  of  the  pangs  which  the  revision  of 
"  Fidelio  "  cost  Beethoven,  and  there  is  a  story  that  Rossini 
quit  attending  performances  of  his  "  Guillaume  Tell "  after 
the  director  of  the  Opera  had  made  some  very  essential 
excisions  in  the  score.  A  friend  met  the  composer  walking 
the  streets  one  night  and  asked  in  surprise :  "  Why  aren't 
you  at  the  Opera  ?  They  are  giving  your  '  Tell/  >: 

"Which  act?"  laconically  inquired  Rossini,  and  walked 
on. 

It  was  less  a  marvel  that  Rostand's  "  Cyrano  de  Bergerac  " 
should  at  last  have  been  turned  into  an  opera  than  that  it 
should  have  waited  so  long  for  the  transformation  which 
every  reader  or  spectator  of  the  play  must  have  seen  was 
inevitable  from  the  beginning.  In  Europe  the  play  was 


AN  EARLIER  OPERA  ON  THE  SUBJECT  291 

protected  by  copyright  and  no  doubt  M.  Rostand  was  him- 
self the  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  omnivorous  French 
librettists  who  have  no  pity  for  the  literary  masterpieces 
of  any  people.  In  the  present  instance  M.  Rostand  was 
powerless  and  though  Mr.  Damrosch  had  announced  that 
he  intended  to  divide  his  royalties  with  him  it  is  not  likely 
that  the  French  dramatist  contemplated  with  equanimity  the 
fact  that  his  Cyrano  was  to  put  on  an  antic  operatic  dis- 
position no  matter  how  ingeniously  the  transmogrification 
might  be  accomplished.  Least  of  all  was  he  likely  to  be 
pleased  to  learn  that  Cyrano  was  to  utter  his  speeches  not 
only  with  the  alloy  of  music  added  to  them  but  sophisticated 
by  a  tongue  so  foreign  to  their  spirit  as  English.  If  he  had 
been  displeased  with  English  performances  of  his  work  he 
no  doubt  felt  doubly  outraged  at  the  fact  that  his  hero's 
famous  nose  was  to  be  set  to  music.  And  yet  it  was  in- 
evitable. As  a  matter  of  fact  the  work  of  Messrs.  Hender- 
son and  Damrosch  was  not  the  first  operatic  version  of  the 
drama.  In  September,  1899,  it  had  a  brief  career  as  an 
opera  which  had  been  fabricated  to  give  vent  to  the  ambi- 
tion of  Mr.  Francis  Wilson  to  get  away  from  acrobatic 
musical  farce  and  demonstrate  that  he  could  use  his  mind 
as  well  as  his  legs  on  the  theatrical  stage.  Unhappily  the 
demonstration  involved  also  the  use  of  Mr.  Wilson's  voice 
from  the  idiosyncrasies  of  which  the  genial  and  scholarly 
comedian  could  not  divorce  himself ;  and  so  this  first 
"  Cyrano  "  opera  failed  miserably.  Mr.  Wilson  made  the 
scenario  for  his  opera  himself,  Mr.  Stuart  Reed  put  it  into 
dramatic  shape  (that  is,  he  wrote  the  dialogue  and  indi- 
cated where  the  music  should  enter),  Mr.  Harry  B.  Smith 
concocted  the  songs,  and  Mr.  Victor  Herbert  composed 
the  music. 

Everybody  was  quick  to  recognize  that  it  was  a  correct 
instinct  which  saw  the  possibility  of  an  opera  in  "  Cyrano," 
but  everybody  who  saw  and  heard  the  opera  was  equally 
quick  to  see  that  it  was  a  mistake  to  choose  any  other 


292  ADAPTABILITY  OF  ROSTAND'S  PLAY 

medium  than  frank  and  broad  burlesque  for  Mr.  Wilson, 
even  if  he  wanted  it  so.  Much  of  the  lyrical  celebration  of 
la  panache  seemed  provided  to  order  by  M.  Rostand  himself, 
who  had  conceived  his  play  on  lines  which  cried  out  for  a 
musical  setting  as  loudly  as  a  work  so  profoundly  poetical 
and  romantic  could.  It  is  sufficient  to  call  the  first  act  to 
mind,  with  its  merry  gathering,  its  play-scene,  the  ballad 
of  the  duello ;  the  second,  with  its  hungry  poets,  the  rhym- 
ing pastry  cook  and  the  inditing  of  the  letter  to  Roxahe; 
the  third,  with  its  proxy  serenade  (for  which  a  prototype 
is  found  in  "Don  Giovanni"),  and  the  song  of  the 
cadets  of  Gascony;  the  fourth,  with  its  camp-scene  before 
the  battle  and  the  battle  itself  ;  finally,  Cyrano's  unconscious 
confession  of  his  passion,  his  fight  with  the  phantoms  of  the 
things  in  life  of  which  he  had  been  the  implacable  enemy — 
why,  they  were  all  conceived,  born,  and  bred  for  opera! 
And  then  the  pretty  invitation  to  seventeenth  century  music 
— the  musette  which  is  the  prelude  to  Montfleury's  effort  to 
recite  a  pastoral,  the  pavane  which  was  to  be  played  out  of 
tune  in  case  De  Guiche  should  approach  the  house  of 
Roxane  to  spoil  the  love-making — what  delightful  oppor- 
tunities these  for  dainty  and  ingenious  musicianship! 

All  this  seems  to  be  of  the  opera  operatic,  and  every 
person  in  the  play  also  struck  out  in  sharp  lines  for  musical 
characterization  and  a  transporting  interchange  of  light- 
some humor,  semi-gravity,  and  deep  passion.  Unfortu- 
nately there  was  too  much  to  lend  itself  to  the  languid  legs 
of  music,  and  when  the  authors  of  the  opera  undertook  the 
transformation  they  were  not  brave  enough  to  make  the 
heroic  excisions  which  were  necessary  to  bring  the  play 
within  the  operatic  framework.  Mtjch  of  the  literary 
sparkle  would  have  to  go  by  the  board  of  course.  That  Mr. 
Henderson  knew  and  he  labored  valiantly  and  with  much 
success  to  supply  its  place  with  lines  which  would  carry 
music  though  they  could  not  reflect  the  romantic  life  which 
was  the  breath  in  Cyrano's  nostrils.  But  music  came  with 


AN  EXCESS  OF  ACTION  AND  INCIDENT  293 

its  clog  in  spite  of  him  and  in  spite  even  of  Mr.  Damrosch, 
who  had  a  multitude  of  pretty  conceits  which  he  thought 
necessary  to  preserve  the  joyous  vivacity  which  the  hero 
injects  intermittently  into  the  play  even  though  consumed 
with  mournful  contemplation  of  the  role  which  he  is  forced 
to  enact  in  the  eventful  history  of  which  he  is  a  part. 

There  were  other  drawbacks  to  a  perfect  adaptation  of 
the  drama  to  music,  but  I  can  not  go  into  them  all  here. 
Let  it  suffice  that  there  was  too  much  action  and  incident 
in  it  to  permit  a  musical  expression  and  illustration  and 
that  neither  Mr.  Henderson  nor  Mr.  Damrosch  succeeded  in 
bringing  it  into  reasonable  proportions.  It  is  assumed  that 
nobody  is  sufficiently  interested  in  reading  a  discussion  of 
the  opera  who  is  not  familiar  with  Rostand's  play.  Mr. 
Henderson  did  not  depart  materially  from  the  French  drama 
except  (at  the  suggestion  of  the  composer)  to  bring  the 
two  closing  scenes  of  the  last  act  closer  together  in  point 
of  time  and  have  the  hero  die  from  a  wound  received  at 
the  battle  of  Arras  the  day  after  the  incident.  There  was 
no  serious  objection  to  be  urged  against  this  device  except 
that  it  lessened  the  psychological  interest  in  Cyrano's  char- 
acter and  also  measurably  that  of  Roxane  by  robbing  the 
unvolitional  confession  of  the  hero's  love  and  pious  fraud 
of  much  of  its  illusion  and  bringing  him  nearer  the  common- 
places of  romance  than  he  ever  was  in  the  magnificent  con- 
ception of  the  poet.  It  was  a  more  serious  defect  that  not 
knowing  what  the  composer's  method  would  be  Mr.  Hender- 
son gave  Mr.  Damrosch  more  material  to  clothe  in  music 
than  could  be  compassed  within  reasonable  time  by  that 
method.  A  brave  effort  was  made  to  obviate  this  difficulty 
by  liberal  excisions  in  the  course  of  the  rehearsals ;  but  the 
obvious  remedy  would  have  been  to  cut  out  the  scenes 
which,  however  brilliant  and  illustrative  of  Rostand's  genius, 
were  not  essential  to  the  presentation  of  the  romantic  figure 
which  was  uppermost  in  Mr.  Damrosch's  mind. 

The  music  of  Mr.  Damrosch  might  be  approached  from 


294  MR.  DAMROSCH'S  SCORE 

several  points  of  view  and  always  invite  more  praise  than 
condemnation.  As  to  ,its  style  it  was  most  eclectic,  so 
eclectic,  indeed,  that  it  can  scarcely  be  credited  with  marked 
consistency  in  style.  The  opening  scene  was  splendidly  effec- 
tive, full  of  grace  and  spirit,  and  nothing  could  have  been 
conceived  more  appropriate  in  any  respect  than  the  measures 
which  begin  the  pastoral  play  interrupted  by  Cyrano.  But 
the  interest  drooped  where  it  was  expected  to  mount  in  the 
duel.  Here  synchronism  of  real  sword-play  and  word,  a 
rhythmically  piquant  melody,  and  a  nice  adjustment  of 
music  and  action  would  have  been  of  beautiful  effectiveness. 
But  they  were  lacking.  It  was  in  the  love-music  of  the 
third  act  and  in  the  dramatic  finale  of  the  fourth  that  Mr. 
Damrosch's  skill  showed  itself  at  its  best.  Here  there  were 
echoes  of  the  melodic,  harmonic,  and  instrumental  idioms  of 
composers  who  have  drawn  luminous  lines  across  the  pages 
of  operatic  history,  but  enough  freshness  of  inspiration  in 
every  department  to  compel  not  only  respect  but  admiration. 
To  sum  up :  a  drama  which  has  many  external  features  that 
lend  themselves  gracefully  to  an  operatic  setting,  which 
might  even  be  said  to  demand  an  operatic  investiture,  but 
which  frequently  in  all  that  makes  it  great  and  glorious  in  its 
original  form  resents  despoliation  of  any  kind,  had  been 
turned  into  an  attractive  musical  drama.  With  its  Gallic 
esprit  inseparable  from  the  original  text  there  evaporated  so 
much  of  its  characteristic  charm  that  few  of  M.  Rostand's 
admirers  could  approve  of  the  transformation ;  but  saving 
the  defects  which  were  to  be  found  chiefly  in  the  musical 
settings  of  portions  .of  its  comedy  it  was  yet  a  notable  artistic 
achievement  and  one  which  reflected  credit  upon  its  authors 
and  the  institution  which  produced  it.  It  offered  nothing 
pointing  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  English  or  Ameri- 
can opera ;  yet  it  was  calculated,  like  "  Mona,"  to  encourage 
native  composers  to  work,  and  this  encouragement  would, 
I  think,  have  been  greater  had  the  opera  been  revived  after 
a  careful  revision,  the  need  of  which  was  recognized  by  its 


PASQUALE  A M  ATC > 
As  the  Sheriff  in  "La  Fanciulla  del  West' 


A  LIST  OF  THE  PERFORMERS  295 

authors,  instead  of  being  thrown  aside  at  the  end  of  the  sea- 
son despite  the  multitude  of  flattering  words  which  were 
heaped  upon  it  after  the  first  performance. 

The  opera  was  performed  with  the  parts  distributed  as 
follows  : 

Cyrano  de  Bergerac   Pasquale  Amato 

Roxane   Frances  Alda 

Duenna  Marie  Mattfeld 

Lise   Vera  Curtis 

A  Flower  Girl   Louise  Cox 

Mother    Superior    Florence    Mulford 

Christian    Riccardo    Martin 

Bagueneau Albert  Reiss 

De  Guiche Putnam  Griswold 

Le  Bret  William  Hinshaw 

First  Musketeer  Basil  Ruysdael 

Second  Musketeer  Marcel  Reiner 

Montfleury) Lambert  Murphy 

A  cadet      j 

A   monk    Antonio    Pini-Corsi 

(  Austin  Hughes 

Four  cavaliers    .   J  ??ol°.  Ananian 

J  Maurice  Sapio 
\  Louis  Kreidler 

"  Boris  Godounow,"  owed  its  first  performance  in 
America  on  March  19,  1913,  under  the  direction  of 
Signer  Toscanini,  New  York,  indirectly  if  not  directly,  to 
the  success  which  had  been  achieved  by  the  work  in  Paris 
in  a  preceding  season.  From  the  Parisian  capital  Mr.  Gatti 
brought  the  scenery  and  the  proper  quantum  of  reclame.  It 
was  in  effect,  if  not  in  fact,  an  appanage  of  the  Russian 
ballet  the  extraordinary,  if  ephemeral,  enthusiasm  concern- 
ing which  had  also  gone  out  from  Paris  and  infected  London 
before  it  reached  New  York.  The  opera,  thanks  to  the 
splendid  and  enduring  merits  of  its  music,  though  accepted 
at  first  with  what  Mr.  Gilbert  called  "  modified  rapture  " 
soon  won  its  way  to  the  general  public  and  has  remained  in 
the  repertory  of  the  Opera  ever  since  it  was  performed  for 
the  first  time.  The  original  American  cast  was  as  follows : 


296  MOUSSORGSKY'S  "BORIS  GODOUNOW" 

Boris  Godounow Adamo  Didur 

Theodore  Anna  Case 

Xenia Leonora  Sparkes 

The  Nurse  Maria  Duchene 

Marina  Louise  Homer 

Schouisky   Angelo  Bada 

Tchelkaloff   Vincenzo   Reschilglian 

Pimenn  Leon  Rothier 

Dmitri   Paul  Althouse 

(His  debut) 

Varlaam Andrea  Segurola 

Missail Pietro  Audisio 

The  Innkeeper   Jeanne  Maubourg 

The  Simpleton Albert  Reiss 

A  Police  officer Giulio  Rossi 

A  Court  officer Leopoldi  Mariani 

Lovitzki  Vincenzo  Reschiglian 

Tcerniakowsky Louis  Kreidler 

Having  presented  a  critical  disquisition  on  the  opera  in 
an  earlier  work  to  which  I  must  needs  make  reference  to 
avoid  repetition,*  I  can  do  no  more  here  than  tell  its  story, 
which  in  its  dramatic  structure  and  the  sequence  of  its  inci- 
dent underwent  many  transformations  since  it  left  the  hands 
of  its  composer. 

The  opera,  which  is  taken  from  a  story  by  Pushkin,  differs 
slightly  from  history.  According  to  the  latter  Boris  Godounow  was 
born  about  1551  and  rose  to  be  the  chief  adviser  of  the  Russian 
Czar  Ivan  the  Terrible,  marrying  the  daughter  of  the  Czar's  cruel 
favorite  Walynta  Skuratow.  Ivan  then  made  Irene,  Boris's  sister, 
the  bride  of  his  half-witted  son  Theodore.  At  Ivan's  death  Boris 
became  one  of  the  guardians  of  the  young  Dimetreus,  a  son  of 
Ivan  by  another  wife,  and  at  the  same  time  practically  the  ruler 
of  the  empire.  Theodore  died  childless  and  shortly  afterwards 
Dimetreus  also  died,  murdered  some  said,  though  without  particular 
foundation,  by  Boris.  Boris  then  became  Czar  and  ruled,  on  the 
whole  wisely.  At  his  death  in  1605  he  left  the  throne  to  his  young 
son,  who  was  shortly  afterwards  murdered.  The  opera,  however, 
starts  with  the  hypothesis  that  Boris  has  murdered  the  young  Di- 
metreus (or  Dmitri).  Boris,  overcome  with  remorse,  has  sought 
repentance  and  seclusion  in  a  convent  near  Moscow  and  the  curtain 

* "  A  Second  Book  of  Operas."  By  Henry  Edward  Krehbiel. 
New  York:  Macmillan  Company,  1917,  p.  209. 


o 

pq 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  OPERA  297 

rises  on  the  populace  assembled  in  the  courtyard  appealing  to  Boris 
to  declare  himself  Czar.  This  he  at  first  refuses  to  do.  In  this 
scene  the  "Gloria"  (Slava)  as  sung  in  the  Russian  Church  is 
introduced  with  fine  effect.* 

The  second  scene  shows  us  a  cell  in  the  Convent  of  Miracles 
where  Brother  Pimenn,  an  aged  monk  who  is  recording  the  annals 
of  the  empire,  arouses  the  imagination  of  the  young  novice  Gregory, 
as  he  relates  to  him  the  story  of  Boris's  crime.  Strange  thoughts 
are  born  in  Gregory's  mind  when  he  learns  that  the  murdered 
Czarewitch,  had  he  lived  to  reign,  would  have  been  his  own  age. 
In  the  closing  scene  of  the  first  act  Boris,  at  last  yielding  to  the 
popular  demand,  appears  to  participate  in  an  imposing  religious 
ceremonial.  He  addresses  his  people  before  the  cathedrals  of  the 
Assumption  and  the  Archangels  and  then,  amid  great  enthusiasm, 
enters  the  former  to  be  crowned. 

The  second  act  plays  on  the  frontier  of  Poland  where  two  vaga- 
bonds, Vaarlam  and  Missail,  clad  as  hermits  and  followed  by 
Gregory  disguised  as  a  peasant,  arrive  at  an  inn.  A  price  has  been 
set  upon  the  head  of  the  escaped  monk,  who  has  proclaimed  himself 
to  be  Dmitri,  who  he  says  was  never  killed.  Presently  the  Czar's 
officers  arrive ;  Gregory  looks  over  the  warrant  they  present,  but  in 
reading  it  changes  the  description  of  the  fugitive  to  make  it  appear 
to  indicate  Vaarlam.  The  latter,  although  quite  drunk,  also  exam- 
ines the  document  and  has  sufficient  intelligence  to  realize  that  the 
warrant  is  for  Gregory,  whom  he  promptly  denounces.  The  False 
Dmitri,  however,  is  too  quick  for  the  officers  and  dashes  from  the 
room.  The  next  scene  shows  Czar  Boris's  private  apartment  in  the 
Kremlin.  His  children,  the  young  Czarewitch  Theodore  and  his 
sister  Xenia,  are  there  with  their  nurse.  Xenia  is  grieving  over  the 
recent  death  of  her  fiancee;  the  nurse  tries  to  comfort  her,  the  boy 
amuses  himself  with  games  in  which  the  nurse  joins  him.  Boris, 
entering,  advises  Xenia  to  seek  distraction  with  her  girl  friends  and 
she  retires  leaving  the  Czar  and  his  heir  alone.  Half  unconscious  of 
his  son's  presence,  Boris  gives  way  to  gloomy  meditations  and  dis- 
closes the  mental  suffering  to  which  the  memory  of  his  crime  has 
subjected  him.  He  is  interrupted  by  the  announcement  that  his 
minister,  Prince  Schouisky,  is  arrived  to  tell  him  of  the  uprising  of 
the  people  in  favor  of  the  False  Dmitri.  Terror  seizes  the  Czar. 
He  insists  upon  Schouisky's  assurance  that  he  really  saw  the  dead 
body  of  the  murdered  Czarewitch.  Left  alone  Boris's  emotion  over- 
whelms him ;  spectre-haunted  he  sinks  upon  his  chair,  crushed  and 
broken,  almost  bereft  of  reason. 

The  next  act  discloses  the  garden  of  the  Castle  Mischek  in  Po- 
land. Mischek's  daughter,  Marina,  rejects  all  other  suitors  in  favor 

*  Lovers  of  chamber  music  know  this  melody  from  its  use  in  the 
Allegretto  of  Beethoven's  E  minor  String  Quartet  dedicated  to 
Rasoumowsky. 


298  PRODUCTION  OF  "CONCHITA" 

of  Gregory.  Prompted  by  love  and  ambition  she  urges  him  to  lead 
the  uprising  against  Boris  and  seize  the  throne.  The  scene  follow- 
ing shows  a  gathering  of  typical  Russian  peasants  in  the  forest  of 
Krony.  They  have  captured  and  are  taunting  the  noble  Kroutchow 
of  the  False  Dmitri's  staff.  A  simpleton  furnishes  amusement  for 
the  urchins.  Vaarlam  and  Missail  lead  in  denunciation  of  Boris. 
Monks  arrive  singing  the  praises  of  the  False  Dmitri.  Suspected  by 
the  crowd  they  are  attacked  and  their  fate  seems  perilous,  when  they 
are  saved  by  the  arrival  of  Gregory  and  his  troops.  In  the  closing 
scene  of  the  opera  a  meeting  of  the  Duma  is  holding  to  determine 
what  action  shall  be  taken  to  crush  the  False  Dmitri.  Prince 
Schouisky,  coming  in,  interrupts  the  proceedings  by  describing  the 
agony  of  Boris,  which  he  had  witnessed  by  eavesdropping.  In  the 
midst  of  his  narration  Boris  himself  enters  the  hall  and  overhears 
Schouisky's  words.  He  denounces  him  bitterly  and  threatens  him 
with  death.  At  this  moment  the  Monk  Pimenn  comes  in.  He  has 
had  a  mysterious  dream  in  which  a  venerable  shepherd  told  him 
how,  after  having  been  blind  from  childhood,  he  had  regained  his 
sight  by  obeying  the  order  of  a  miraculous  visage  of  Dmitri,  the 
slain  Czarewitch,  to  offer  a  prayer  at  his  tomb.  The  monk's  words 
terrify  the  Czar ;  he  calls  for  his  son  Theodore,  feeling  that  the 
end  is  at  hand.  Declaring  Theodore  his  rightful  heir,  and  beg- 
ging the  mercy  of  Heaven  for  his  crimes,  he  sinks  into  his  chair 
and  dies. 

The  first  of  the  novelties  presented  by  the  Philadelphia- 
Chicago  company  was  "  Conchita,"  the  music  by  Zandonai, 
which  had  a  performance  at  the  Metropolitan  on  February 
II,  1913,  with  the  principal  parts  distributed  as  follows: 

Conchita    Tarquinia  Tarquini 

Don  Maceo  Charles  Dalmores 

Dolores    Helen   Stanley 

Ruffina  Ruby  Heyl 

Estella  : Minnie  Egener 

LTspettore    F.  A.   Prisch 

Bandarillo   Vittorio   Trevisan 

Madre  de  Conchita Louise  Barat 

La  Gallega  Rosina  Galli 

La  Danseur Luigi  Albertieri 

Norentio    Marie  Hamilton 

Garcka Constantin  Nicolay 

Sereno  Vittorio  Trevisan 

Conductor,  Cleofonte  Campanini 

"  Conchita "  had  its  first  representation  in  America  in 
San  Francisco  early  in  the  season.  It  came  East  by  way  of 


AN  OUTLINE  OF  THE  STORY  299 

Chicago,  where  it  had  a  single  performance,  and  Philadel- 
phia. On  the  Pacific  coast  it  was  produced  by  a  local  troupe, 
but  the  representative  of  the  titular  role  was  Mile.  Tarquini, 
who  had  created  the  part  in  London  in  the  previous  July  and 
acted  it  also  in  Chicago  and  Philadelphia  as  well  as  in  New 
York.  The  story  of  the  opera  exhales  the  kind  of  stench 
which  arose  from  the  opera  houses  of  Italy  immediately  after 
the  success  of  "  Cavalleria  Rusticana "  and  "  Pagliacci." 
It  is  Spanish  so  far  as  its  externals  and  its  atmosphere  go, 
and  bears  close  kinship  with  "  Carmen."  Like  the  story  of 
Bizet's  opera,  too,  it  was  found  in  a  French  book,  a  novel 
by  Pierre  Louys.  As  a  reviewer  in  the  Daily  Express  in- 
geniously observed  when  the  work  was  produced  in  London, 
it  seems  to  have  been  written  to  enforce  or  illustrate  the 
moral  contained  in  the  old  saw : 

A  woman,  a  dog,  and  a  walnut  tree — 
The  more  you  beat  them  the  better  they  be. 

It  would  not  do  to  put  into  a  relation  of  its  plot  all  the 
color  used  by  the  novelist  or  even  the  librettist.  An  outline 
in  distemper  must  serve :  The  heroine  is  a  cigarette  girl 
whose  mother  takes  money  for  her  shame  from  a  wealthy 
lover.  Learning  this  Conchita,  who,  we  are  asked  to  be- 
lieve, wants  to  be  loved  for  herself  alone,  compels  her 
mother  to  return  the  money  and  goes  away  from  Seville. 
Six  months  later,  Maceo,  the  lover,  finds  her  dancing  a 
lascivious  dance  for  the  entertainment  of  a  company  of 
tourists  behind  the  locked  doors  of  a  cafe.  There  is  a  vio- 
lent interruption  of  the  delectable  proceeding,  which  ends 
in  an  apparent  reconciliation  of  the  lovers,  the  woman  ac- 
cepting the  keys  to  a  house  in  a  secluded  part  of  the  city 
where  she  agrees  to  receive  Maceo.  When  he  comes,  how- 
ever, she  locks  the  iron  gate  against  him  and  permits  him 
only  the  precious  privilege  of  kissing  the  hem  of  her  dress 
(or  was  it  her  foot?)  through  the  iron  bars,  and  witnessing 
the  sight  of  herself  in  the  arms  of  a  younger  rival.  On 


300  A  DEPARTURE  FROM  ITALIAN  IDEALS 

the  next  day  she  mets  Maceo  again  and  taunts  him  with 
not  having  kept  his  threat  to  blow  out  his  brains.  Mad- 
dened by  rage  he  hurls  her  to  the  ground  and  gives  her  a 
thrashing.  When  he  recovers  self-control  the  man  is  hor- 
rified with  what  he  has  done;  but  now  he  learns  from  the 
woman's  cooing  and  contrite  confession  that  instead  of  in- 
creasing her  hatred  the  physical  chastisement  has  awakened 
her  love. 

In  adapting  "  La  Femme  et  le  Pantin  "  for  operatic  pur- 
poses the  authors  attempted  to  soften  the  lines  of  the  story 
as  they  have  been  hurriedly  narrated  here ;  but  the  result 
has  been  chiefly  to  fill  the  play  with  contradictions  calculated 
to  make  a  psychologist  cudgel  his  brains  to  reconcile  the 
utterances  and  actions  of  the  heroine,  which  are  as  far 
apart  as  the  two  poles.  If  "  Conchita  "  holds  its  place  on 
the  stage  (meaning  if  it  lives  ten  years  or  so)  I  shall  be 
strongly  tempted  to  set  it  down  as  making  a  more  distinct 
departure  from  old  Italian  ideals  than  any  of  the  operas 
of  Mascagni,  Leoncavallo,  or  Puccini.  Because  it  is  so 
different  in  one  respect  from  the  work  which  the  younger 
generation  of  composers  has  written,  however,  it  is  ex- 
tremely doubtful  if  it  will  so  survive.  When  Dr.  von 
Biilow  recovered  from  the  intoxication  produced  in  him 
by  his  first  hearing  of  "  Cavalleria  Rusticana "  he  tried 
to  make  amends  to  Verdi  for  a  grievous  wrong  which  he 
had  done  that  master  by  apologizing  to  him  and  writing 
a  letter  to  Mascagni  in  which  he  told  the  latter  that  he  had 
found  his  successor  in  his  great  predecessor.  Mascagni, 
Leoncavallo,  and  all  the  small  fry  veritists  of  Italy,  who  trod 
upon  each  other's  heels  in  their  eagerness  to  exploit  the  new 
style  set  by  these  pioneers,  were  the  product  of  an  arti- 
ficially inflated  protest  against  Verdi.  To  pull  him  down 
they  set  up  Wagner  only  to  discover  that  it  was  as  impos- 
sible to  imitate  their  German  model  as  it  was  to  compete 
with  his  great  Italian  contemporary.  All  that  they  could 
do  was  to  seek  to  lift  the  dramatic  element  of  their  operas 


INFLUENCE  OF  EARLIER  OPERAS  301 

into  prominence,  to  which  end  they  plunged  their  hands 
into  the  shambles  of  Neapolitan  life  in  search  for  subjects, 
bespattering  the  stage  with  filth  and  degrading  the  art  which 
they  professed  to  be  raising  to  a  higher  potentiality.  Un- 
disturbed by  their  clamors,  Verdi  kept  on  his  way,  keeping 
step  with  Wagner  in  his  onward  march  but  unswervingly 
faithful  to  the  musical  ideals  of  the  people  from  whose  loins 
he  was  sprung.  Puccini,  who  is  not  yet  within  seeing 
distance  of  the  Verdi  who  wrote  "  Aida,"  "  Otello,"  and 
"  Falstaff,"  has  won  his  way  by  adhering  (as  he  did  up  to 
the  time  when  he  composed  "  La  Fanciulla  del  West ")  to 
the  principle  that  vocal  melody  is  the  thing  most  desirable 
in  lyric  drama ;  but  it  was  Bizet  who  really  pointed  the  way 
in  which  German  art,  typified  in  Wagner,  and  Italian  art, 
represented  by  the  early  Verdi  and  his  immediate  predeces- 
sors, might  be  united. 

There  was  nothing  strange  that  "  Carmen  "  came  out  of 
France — that  it  should  have  been  the  product  of  a  people 
in  whom  is  mixed  Teutonic  and  Latin  blood.  It  is  much 
more  surprising  that  the  French  have  not  since  produced 
successors  to  Bizet  and  his  masterpiece.  Some  enthusiasts 
have  hailed  such  successors  in  Charpentier  and  "  Louise," 
but  it  is  not  likely  that  they  will  long  be  able  to  press  that 
flattering  unction  to  their  souls.  Without  going  any  further 
into  the  subject  it  may  be  said  that  there  can  be  no  perma- 
nency of  interest  in  any  dramatic  representation  of  the 
process  of  making  a  bawd,  and  that  some  of  the  musical 
devices  which  are  fascinating  in  "  Louise  "  will  some  day 
be  put  to  a  better  use.  Puccini  began  to  do  this  in  "  Ma- 
dama  Butterfly."  One  of  these  devices  is  local  color,  most 
appropriate  in  comedy,  but  also  applicable  in  the  field 
which  lies  between  comedy  and  tragedy  in  the  classic 
sense. 

"  Carmen  "  and  "  Louise  " — were  they  absent  five  min- 
utes from  the  minds  of  the  people  who  saw  the  new  opera? 
No  more  than  they  were  absent  from  the  minds  of  the  au- 


302  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  SPANISH  MUSIC 

thors  of  "  Conchita."  But  before  this  branch  of  the  subject 
is  taken  up  something  must  be  said  about  a  third  influence — 
operative  in  this  case — a  purely  musical  one.  While  the 
men  who  made  an  opera-book  out  of  "  La  Femme  et  le 
Pantin "  (Vaucaire  and  Zangarini)  kept  "Carmen"  and 
"  Louise "  in  mind  Signer  Zandonai,  the  composer,  was 
thinking  also  of  Debussy.  From  him  he  drew  many  of 
the  orchestral  devices  with  which  he  aimed  to  produce  that 
effect,  so  dear  to  the  hearts  of  critical  word-mongers,  called 
atmosphere  and  mood.  Does  the  lover  of  fine  musical 
thought,  gratifying  to  the  sense,  appealing  to  the  emotion 
and  stimulating  to  the  imagination,  demand  expressive 
melody  and  harmony?  Immediately  he  is  met  by  the 
statement  that  the  essence  of  a  drama  is  better  conveyed 
in  fragmentary  phrases,  unnatural  harmonies,  and  unwonted 
instrumental  colors.  The  human  voice  does  not  offer  the 
composer  an  adequate  vehicle  for  conveying  these  things,  so 
song  must  needs  go  by  the  board  and  instrumental  music 
take  its  place.  Therefore  "  Pelleas  et  Melisande  "  had  much 
to  do  with  "  Conchita."  More  than  this,  Zandonai,  I  ven- 
ture to  say,  was  familiar  not  only  with  Debussy's  opera  but 
also  with  his  "  Iberia  " — possibly  also  with  Ravel's  "  Rhap- 
sodic Espagnol,"  in  which  work  the  coiners  of  pretty  phrases 
would  have  us  recognize  not  the  fine,  normal,  and  natural 
body  of  Spain  but  its  flocculent,  fleeting,  and  flimsy  soul. 
"  A  hot  night  disturbed  by  a  guitar,"  said  Norman  Macleod 
in  characterization  of  Spanish  music ;  a  hot  night  disturbed 
by  a  multitude  of  orchestral  instruments  speaking  strange 
idioms  mixed  with  the  voices  of  street  vendors  is  Signer 
Zandonai's  paraphrase  of  Dr.  Macleod's  definition.  It  is  a 
highly  spiced  ingredient  in  the  Italian  composer's  operatic 
decoction,  wherefore  he  employs  it  again  and  again,  and  the 
instrumental  intermezzi  become  the  most  significant,  as 
they  are  the  most  beautiful,  features  of  his  opera. 

It  is  in  the  subordination  of  the  verbal  element  to  the 
instrumental  that  the  opera  marks  a  departure  even  from 


A  SORDID  AND  VICIOUS  PLAY  303 

those  predecessors  which  it  most  closely  resembles,  and 
which  haunted  the  fancy  of  its  authors  while  they  were 
making  it.  Zandonai,  we  were  told,  was  only  thirty  years 
old  and  "  Conchita  "  his  second  opera.  Of  his  librettists  I 
know  little  or  nothing,  but  their  book  offered  ample  evi- 
dence of  their  inexperience ;  only  novices  would  cling  so 
slavishly  to  their  models  and  thus  work  their  own  undoing. 
The  story  is  not  a  pretty  tale  in  the  original  book ;  on  the 
contrary,  it  reeks  with  vulgarity.  Professing  to  purify  it 
of  its  dross  by  claiming  virtuous  conduct  for  the  drab  crea- 
ted by  the  French  novelist,  the  librettists  robbed  her  of  all 
dramatic  consistency  and  every  vestige  of  the  psychological 
trait  which  some  men  have  professed  to  find  in  one  type  of 
womankind.  They  would  have  us  look  upon  a  woman  who 
throws  herself  into  the  arms  of  a  man  whom  she  has  seen 
but  once  and  whom  she  has  introduced  into  her  home,  who 
gives  him  her  embraces  and  kisses,  who  dances  in  the  nude 
for  patrons  who  have  paid  to  see  her  in  private  behind 
locked  doors  of  a  vulgar  cabaret,  who  locks  the  man  who 
loves  her  to  distraction  out  of  the  house  in  which  he  has 
ensconced  her  and  lets  him  see  her  there  in  the  embraces  of 
a  rival,  who  twits  him  for  failing  to  blow  out  his  brains  be- 
cause of  her  treatment  of  him  and  who  finally  gives  himself 
to  her  because  he  has  flogged  her,  as  one  who  is  actuated 
wholly  by  "  pride  of  purity  under  the  appearance  of  vice  " — 
whatever  that  may  mean.  Such  a  woman  does  not  ask,  nor 
does  she  receive,  even  that  singular  sympathy  which  can  go 
out  to  such  frank  sensuality  as  is  personified  in  the  Carmen 
of  Merimee  and  Bizet.  Neither  does  the  supposed  suffering 
of  the  heroes  of  the  singular  tale  kindle  a  single  spark  of 
interest  or  compassion.  It  is  all  sordid  and  mean,  a  farrago 
of  nonsense  put  together  for  the  sake  of  stage  pictures  and 
lurid  music  of  the  highly  impressionistic  kind  to  be  found 
in  portions  of  "  Louise  "  and  the  instrumental  compositions 
referred  to.  For  the  sake  of  these  pictures  and  this  music 
large  drafts  have  been  made  upon  Charpentier's  opera. 


304  THE  ADMIRABLE  PARTS  OF  THE  MUSIC 

There  is  a  scene  in  a  cigar  factory  of  Seville,  with  girls  at 
work  and  gossiping — a  parallel  to  the  dressmaking  shop  in 
"  Louise."  Then  comes  an  intermezzo  which  the  authors 
intended  to  be  played  with  the  scene  in  which  strains  of 
dance  music  and  the  sounds  of  a  Spanish  street  are  mingled 
with  the  cries  of  a  vendor  of  fruit  and  the  conversation  of 
the  lovers  as  they  walk  homeward ;  but  this  Mr.  Dippel 
kept  veiled  by  his  curtain,  thus  saving  too  bald  an  imitation 
of  the  early  morning  scene  on  Montmartre.  A  picture  of 
Conchita's  home  calls  up  memories  of  Charpentier's  sewing- 
girl,  but  the  newer  heroine's  mother  is  represented  as  a 
wicked  foil  to  an  alleged  virtuous  daughter  instead  of  to 
the  opposite  in  "  Louise."  Then  comes  the  cabaret  scene,  a 
picturesque  one  of  wild  merrymaking  culminating  in  the 
lascivious  dance  which,  though  presented  by  suggestion 
rather  than  literally,  was  yet  as  risque  as  anything  that  had 
yet  been  shown  on  the  operatic  stage — more  so  by  far  than 
the  dance  which  brought  condemnation  on  "  Salome."  There 
is  some  beautiful  and  expressive  music  in  the  score,  how- 
ever. The  intermezzo  already  described  is  such,  though  it 
descends  to  vulgarity  in  its  brazen  climax,  in  which  it  is 
somewhat  disconcerting  and  likewise  amusing  to  hear  some- 
thing very  like  a  paraphrase  of  one  of  Schubert's  "  Soirees 
de  Vienne."  A  narrative  by  Conchita  in  the  first  act  has 
much  appositeness  and  no  little  beauty,  and  a  languorous  in- 
terlude between  the  third  and  fourth  acts  is  well  calculated 
to  take  the  imagination  captive.  In  the  cabaret  scene  there 
is  much  ingenious  commingling  of  rhythms  by  two  bands, 
and  when  the  noise  subsides  for  Conchita's  dance  there  is  a 
use  of  local  color  which  falls  gratefully  into  ears  which  had 
been  rudely  assaulted  a  moment  before.  All  of  Signer  Zan- 
donai's  music  of  the  order  which  can  be  called  reflective  or 
contemplative  is  charmingly  orchestrated,  even  if  it  lacks 
the  merit  of  originality  of  idea. 

On  February  25,  1913,  Mr.  Dippel  brought  forward  his 
second  novelty,  "  Le  Ranz  des  Vaches,"  which,  before  com- 


KIENZL'S  "  RANZ  DES  VACHES  "  305 

ing  to  New  York,  had  enjoyed  two  performances  within 
four  days  in  Philadelphia.  The  music  was  conducted  by 
Signor  Campanini,  and  the  principal  singers  among  the 
many  were : 

Louis  XVI  Constantin  Nicolay 

Marquis  Massimelle   Gustav  Huberdeau 

Blanchefleur   Helen  Stanley 

The  Chancellor F.  A.  Prisch 

Captain  Brayole  Jacques  Dury 

Marquis  de  Chezy   Emilio  Venturini 

Cleo  Margaret  Keyes 

Primus  Thaller   Charles  Dalmores 

Dursel   Georges  Mascal 

Marion  Eleanor  de  Cisneros 

Favart Hector  Dufranne 

First  Chasseur  Emilio  Venturini 

The  opera,  though  sung  in  French  and  under  a  French 
title,  is  a  German  work  which  perhaps  would  have  been 
happier  in  a  German  garb.  Its  title  is  not  a  matter  of  large 
consequence,  for  neither  "  Le  Ranz  des  Vaches  "  nor  "  Der 
Kuhreigen  "  conveys  a  hint  of  the  opera  or  its  story.  The 
French  and  German  terms  are  identical  in  meaning  and 
equally  vague  as  to  their  origin.  They  stand  for  the  melo- 
dies played  in  Switzerland  on  the  Alpine  horn  with  which 
cows  are  called  from  the  pastures,  and  in  this  sense  are  in- 
applicable, strictly  speaking,  to  the  song  which  provides  the 
dramatic  motive  for  the  opera  in  question.  From  them  we 
receive  suggestions  of  Alpine  herds  and  lowing  kine ;  in 
the  opera  we  see  signs  of  sansculottism  and  bloody  revolu- 
tion. The  story  of  the  opera  was  extracted  by  Richard 
Batka  from  a  German  novelette  entitled  "  Die  kleine 
Blanchefleur,"  written  by  Rudolph  Hans  Bartsch.  Wilhelm 
Kienzl,  who  for  several  years  had  enjoyed  a  wonderful  de- 
gree of  popular  favor  in  Germany  because  of  an  opera  enti- 
tled "  Der  Evangelimann,"  composed  this  new  opera  two 
years  or  so  before,  and  for  something  more  than  a  year  it 
had  been  sweeping  over  the  German  stage  like  wildfire.  It 


306  NATIONAL  SONGS  AND  NOSTALGIA 

was  to  the  credit  of  Mr.  Dippel  that,  having  brought  for- 
ward such  novelties  as  the  French  "  Quo  Vadis  ?  "  and  the 
Italian  "  I  Giojelli  della  Madonna "  and  "  Conchita,"  he 
should  also  have  presented  a  German  novelty.  "  Der  Kuh- 
reigen  "  was  not  of  very  large  significance  artistically,  but 
it  served  an  excellent  purpose  as  a  balance-wheel  and  as  a 
preservative  of  good  taste  in  the  lyric  drama.  Its  success 
in  Germany,  Philadelphia,  and  New  York  was  at  least  a 
handsome  tribute  to  the  handicraftmanship  of  both  libret- 
tist and  composer. 

The  story  of  the  opera,  its  romance  and  its  revolution, 
turns  on  the  singing  of  a  prohibited  song  by  a  Swiss  volun- 
teer in  the  French  army  in  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Historically  the  tale  will  not  bear  analysis,  but  it 
has  a  deep  psychological  foundation.  The  story  goes  that 
the  sounds  of  the  Alpine  horn  used  to  cause  such  home- 
sickness and  lead  to  so  many  desertions  in  the  French  army 
that  Bonaparte  forbade  the  singing  of  a  ranz  des  vaches  on 
the  penalty  of  death.  Whether  or  not  the  story  is  strictly 
true  does  not  matter.  It  has  a  parallel  in  the  indubitable 
fact  that  songs  which  appeal  powerfully  to  the  emotions  of 
a  people  have  frequently  been  the  subject  of  political  regu- 
lation. Thus  the  Austrian  Government  had  had  occasion 
to  prohibit  the  performance  of  the  "  Rakotzky  March  "  and 
confiscate  the  copies  in  the  music  shops  because  of  its  effect 
upon  patriotic  Magyars ;  and  to  cite  only  one  other  instance, 
the  Scottish  tune  of  "  Lochaber  no  more  "  was  taboo  at 
the  time  of  the  Sepoy  mutiny.  There  is  therefore  a  poetical 
foundation  for  the  pretty  romance  utilized  in  Kienzl's  opera, 
though  it  is  more  or  less  a  pity  that  the  novelist,  dramatist, 
and  composer  were  not  a  little  more  respectful  to  the  verities 
in  their  choice  of  material.  The  story  of  the  opera,  in  brief, 
is  this : 

A  young  Swiss  volunteer  in  the  French  army,  overcome 
by  nostalgia,  sings  the  prohibited  song  which  is  called  a 
ranz  des  vaches.  The  author  of  the  romance  being  a  Ger- 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  OPERA          307 

man,  the  Swiss  are  made  to  realize  that  fidelity  is  typi- 
fied in  the  Lion  of  Lucerne.  The  singer  had  quarreled 
with  a  French  officer  because  of  his  treachery  to  his  com- 
mander, and  the  Frenchman  seeks  revenge  by  denouncing 
the  Switzer  for  singing  the  prohibited  song.  The  wife  of 
the  commander  intercedes  with  the  king  and  secures  a  par- 
don for  the  singer.  She  has  looked  with  favor  upon  his 
comely  face  and  figure  and  dreams  a  pretty  pastoral  dream 
of  him  playing  shepherd  to  her  shepherdess  on  her  estates, 
but  finds  herself  repulsed  by  the  young  soldier  because  of 
the  fact  that  she  is  married.  Now  the  revolutionary  storm 
breaks.  The  aristocratic  commander  goes  to  the  guillotine 
and  the  romantic  wife  is  condemned  to  follow  him.  Cir- 
cumstances throw  the  power  to  save  her  into  the  hands  of 
the  Swiss  soldier,  now  madly  in  love  with  her.  But  when 
he  suggests  a  blissful,  peaceful  life  among  the  cows  of 
Appenzell  the  lady  thinks  it  so  gross  a  misfit  that  she 
chooses  to  go  to  her  death,  after  the  favor  of  a  minuet. 

There  is  dramatic  blood  in  the  story  and  it  flows  through 
the  opera,  warm  and  unimpeded.  It  is  too  bad,  of  course, 
that  the  song  which  Primus  Thaller,  the  Swiss  hero,  sings 
is  not  a  Swiss  song  at  all,  but  a  German  one  which  describes 
the  fate  of  a  Swiss  soldier  who  was  led  to  desert  the  French 
army  by  sounds  from  his  homeland.  The  French  transla- 
tion does  not  disguise  it.  It  is  that  which  all  the  German 
world  knows  and  which  begins  with  the  stanza : 

Zu  Strassburg  auf  der  Schanz, 

Da  ging  mein   trauern   an  ; 

Das  Alphorn  hort'  ich  driiben  anstimmen, 

Ins  Vaterland  musst  ich  hiniiber  schwinnen, 

Das  ging  nicht  an. 

The  song  is  a  paraphrase  of  an  earlier  one  which  was  no 
doubt  known  in  some  parts  of  Germany  at  the  time  of  the 
French  Revolution ;  but  it  never  was  a  Swiss  song  and 
never  a  ranz  des  rachcs,  though  it  refers  to  the  national 
type  of  melody.  The  familiar  tune  by  Silcher  to  which  it 


308  SWISS  MUSIC  AND  FRENCH  AIRS 

is  sung  throughout  Germany  was  not  composed  until  1835, 
wherefore,  no  doubt,  Kienzl  wrote  a  tune  of  his  own  which 
is  the  Leitmotif  of  the  opera  and  a  most  admirable  embodi- 
ment of  the  folksong  spirit.  In  harmony  with  it  is  the 
music,  which  beautifully  echoes  the  melodies  of  the  Alpine 
horn  which  invites  the  Swiss  soldier  to  his  offense  and 
which  recurs  whenever  a  vision  of  Alpine  scenery  is  in- 
voked by  the  dramatic  situation  or  dialogue.  Contrasted 
with  this  music  is  the  ribald  song  of  the  French  soldiers 
about  their  officer,  and  the  revolutionary  airs  "  (^a  ira,"  "  La 
Carmagnole,"  and  "  La  Marseillaise,"  all  of  which  are  given 
savage  settings  and  a  pictorial  environment  which  recall 
Giordano's  "  Andrea  Chenier."  It  would  be  foolish  to  say 
that  there  is  great  music  in  the  opera,  but  equally  foolish  to 
deny  much  of  it  splendid  effectiveness  and  ^motional  as  well 
as  aesthetic  charm. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

A  SEASON  PROLIFIC  IN  INCIDENTS 
AND  OPERAS 

OPERAS  PRODUCED  IN  1913-14— A  VISIT  FROM  THE  CHICAGO- 
PHILADELPHIA  COMPANY— DEATH  OF  PUTNAM  GRISWOLD— 
STRAUSS'S  "  DER  ROSENKAVALIER  "—.THE  THEATRICAL  VALUE 
OF  PRURIENCY— BENELLFS  POETICAL  DRAMA  "  L'AMORE  DEI 
TRE  RE  "— MONTEMEZZI'S  MUSIC— ITS  RACIAL  CHARACTER- 
CONSTRUCTIVE  ELEMENTS  BORROWED  FROM  RUSSIA— SIGNOR 
FERRARI-FONTANA— LUCREZIA  BORI— "  MADELEINE  "—LIGHT 
FRENCH  COMEDY  AND  HEAVY  MUSIC—"  DON  QUICHOTTE " 
—CERVANTES  TRAVESTIED— MARY  GARDEN  AND  "  MONNA 
VANNA"— CHARPENTIER'S  "JULIEN"— AN  ABORTIVE  SEQUEL 
TO  "LOUISE"— A  COMEDY  BY  MOLIERE  DONE  INTO  A  DE- 
LIGHTFUL OPERA— WOLF-FERRARI'S  "L'AMORE  MEDICO"— 
DEATH  OF  MME.  NORDICA 

WHEN  Mr.  Gatti  issued  his  prospectus  for  the  sixth  sea- 
son of  opera  at  the  Metropolitan  under  his  management 
(the  twenty-ninth  since  the  house  was  opened)  he  promised 
five  novelties,  viz. :  Charpentier's  "  Julien,"  Victor  Her- 
bert's "  Madeleine,"  Italo  Montemezzi's  "  L'Amore  dei  tre 
Re,"  Richard  Strauss's  "  Der  Rosenkavalier,"  and  Wolf- 
Ferrari's  "  L'Amore  Medico."  Concerning  all  of  these 
works  he  redeemed  his  promise.  He  also  promised  revivals 
of  "  Carmen,"  Boito's  "  Mefistofele,"  Rossini's  "  Guglielmo 
Tell,"  Saint-Saens's  "  Samson  et  Dalila,"  and  Verdi's  "  Un 
Ballo  in  Maschera."  He  kept  his  word  only  in  respect  of 
the  last.  The  fact  seemed  deplorable  only  in  the  case  of 
Bizet's  opera,  for  which  it  had  been  announced  that  Miss 
Farrar  was  making  studies.  There  seemed  to  be  something 
only  a  little  short  of  amazing  in  the  circumstances  that  an 
institution  of  the  magnitude  and  dignity  of  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  should  not  have  in  its  permanent  repertory  the 
most  perfect  opera  of  the  last  half-century;  but  the  fact 
that  it  was  unable  to  give  a  satisfactory  performance  of 

3°9 


3io          SUCCESSES  AND  FAILURES  OF  A  SEASON 

"  Faust,"  with  which  it  made  one  lamentable  essay  on  a 
Saturday  night,  was  even  more  amazing.  It  seemed  to 
illustrate  the  comment  which  had  often  been  made  touching 
the  lack  of  proper  adjustment  between  operas  and  singers. 
Of  the  new  works  Montemezzi's  opera  achieved  the  most 
significant  success,  one  which  ranked  with  that  of  "  Boris 
Godounow  "  in  the  two  seasons  in  which  it  had  been  in  the 
Metropolitan  repertory.  The  enthusiastic  acceptance  of 
these  works  was  the  more  gratifying  to  the  intelligent  lovers 
of  the  lyric  drama  from  the  fact  that  it  was  due  to  the  works 
themselves  and  not  to  the  popular  desire  to  hear  admired 
singers.  Caruso  and  Farrar  carried  Charpentier's  opera 
through  five  performances,  but  the  work  itself  was  a  bore 
and  Caruso's  impersonation  a  thing  of  no  distinction.  Three 
hours  of  droning  song  in  moderate  tempo  to  accompany  a 
fantastic  allegory  which  was  neither  drama,  oratorio,  nor 
cantata,  and  which  made  one  want  to  shriek  for  an  allegro 
for  a  change,  was  a  severe  test  of  endurance.  It  was  never 
heard  of  after  the  season.  "  Der  Rosenkavalier  "  achieved 
success  by  its  exquisite  stage-setting,  the  beautiful  portions 
of  its  music,  and  the  splendid  singing  and  acting  of  Mmes. 
Ober  and  Hempel.  Wolf -Ferrari's  opera  came  too  late  in 
the  season  to  have  a  fair  test,  but  it  proved  to  be  worthy  of 
a  permanent  place  in  the  Metropolitan  list,  though  it  did  not 
achieve  it.  The  Chicago-Philadelphia  Company  occupied 
the  opera  house  for  four  successive  Tuesday  evenings,  be- 
ginning February  3,  1914,  and  gave  performances  to  Mas- 
senet's "  Don  Quichotte,"  Fevrier's  "  Monna  Vanna,"  Char- 
pentier's "  Louise,"  and  Wolf-Ferrari's  "  I  Giojelli  della 
Madonna,"  the  first  two  of  which  were  heard  in  New  York 
for  the  first  time. 

The  story  of  the  scandal  which  grew  out  of  the  specula- 
tion in  subscription  tickets  has  been  told.  A  tragic  incident 
of  the  season  was  the  death  on  February  26,  1914,  of  Put- 
nam Griswold,  an  American  basso  who  had  been  one  of  the 
ornaments  of  the  company  since  his  first  appearance  with 


PASQUALE  AMATO 
As  Cyrano  de  Bergerac 


"  DER  ROSENKAVALIER  "  311 

it  on  November  23,  1911.  He  was  only  thirty-eight  years 
of  age  and  had  made  an  enviable  reputation  in  America 
when  he  sang  with  the  Henry  W.  Savage  Opera  Company 
and  afterward  in  Munich  and  Berlin.  The  German  Kaiser 
sent  a  representative  from  the  Legation  at  Washington  to  his 
funeral.  Mr.  Griswold  was  a  native  of  Minneapolis,  Minn. 
The  order  of  the  production  of  the  operas  new  to  the  New 
York  public,  with  the  discussion  of  which  the  rest  of  this 
chapter  must  be  concerned,  was  as  follows :  "  Der  Rosen- 
kavalier,"  "  L'Amore  dei  tre  Re,"  "  Madeleine,"  "  Don  Qui- 
chotte,"  "  Monna  Vanna,"  "  Julien,"  and  "  L'Amore  Me- 
dico." Richard  Strauss's  opera,  which  after  elaborate  prepa- 
ration received  its  first  American  representation  at  a  special 
performance  on  December  9,  1913,  under  the  musical  direc- 
tion of  Alfred  Hertz,  was  given  with  the  following  distribu- 
tion of  parts : 

Feldmarschallin   Fiirstin  Werdenberg   Frieda   Hempel 

Baron  Ochs  auf  Lerchenau Otto  Goritz 

Octavian,  genannt  Quinquin Margarete  Ober 

Herr  von  Faninal  Hermann  Weil 

Sophie,  seine  Tochter  Anna  Case 

Jungfer   Marianna,   Leitmetzerin    Rita  Fornia 

Valzacchi,  ein   Intrigant   Albert   Reiss 

Annina,  seine  Begleiterin  Marie  Mattfeld 

Ein  Polizeikommissar  Carl  Schlegel 

Haushofmeister  der  Feldmarschallin   Pietro  Audisio 

Haushofmeister  bei  Faninal  Lambert  Murphy 

Ein  Notar Basil  Ruysdael 

Ein  Wirth   Julius  Bayer 

Ein   Sanger    Carl   Jorn 

C  Rosina  Vandyck 
Drei  Edelige  Waisen   •<    Sophie  Braslau 

I  Jeanne  Maubonrg 

Ein  Lakei  Ludwig  Burgstaller 

Ein  kleiner  Neger   Ruth  Weinstein 

Inasmuch  as  I  gave  the  opera  extended  critical  considera- 
tion in  my  "  Second  Book  of  Operas,"  *  I  hope  I  may  be 

*  "  A  Second  Book  of  Operas ;  Their  Histories,  Their  Plots,  and 
Their  Music."  By  Henry  Edward  Krehbiel.  New  York :  The  Mac- 
millan  Company,  1917.  P.  190. 


3i2      COMMERCIAL  VALUE  OF  LUBRICITY  IN  AN  OPERA 

spared  a  repetition  of  my  views  upon  that  rather  unusual 
work.  Those  who  were  informed  in  advance  of  its  plot 
probably  wondered  why  the  cost  of  an  orchestral  stall  at 
this  premiere  was  not  set  at  twice  the  price  exacted.  Mod- 
ern pruriency  ought  to  be  more  attractive  than  ancient 
necrophflism ;  and  if  the  first  glimpse  at  the  delectable 
"  Salome  "  had  been  thought  to  be  worth  $10  in  the  holiday- 
tide,  then  a  comedy  which  deals  with  the  passion  more  gen- 
eral if  not  more  ancient,  but  which  finds  equally  frank  ex- 
pression in  this  lyric  play,  ought  to  have  been  considered 
worth  more  to  the  public  which  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House,  as  an  agency  of  education  and  refinement,  is  striving 
to  uplift.  If  I  were  inclined  to  go  into  the  question  ana- 
lytically I  should  say  that  an  opera  which  begins  with  the 
lover  kissing  the  hands  of  his  lady-love  extended  from  the 
curtains  of  her  bed  while  the  birds  are  twittering  their 
matin  song  would  be  worth,  not  two-thirds  more  than  the 
regular  price  of  admission,  but  at  least  three  times  more, 
provided  that  the  beginning  of  the  dramatic  action  could 
have  only  been  made  coincident  with  the  instrumental  music. 
There  was  no  question  of  art  involved  here ;  only  a  ques- 
tion of  financial  emolument.  Herr  Strauss  is,  as  the  world 
knows,  what  the  Germans  call  ein  Pantoffclheld — the  hero 
of  his  wife's  slipper — though  his  dramatic  poses  grow 
naughtier  from  day  to  day  for  business  reasons.  When  he 
was  in  New  York  he  said  to  one  of  its  best  musicians, 
that  he  would  polish  stoves  if  only  the  occupation  could  be 
made  remunerative  enough ;  and  there  need  be  no  surprise 
that  he  was  willing  to  humor  the  decadent  taste  of  the  Ger- 
man stage  in  his  "  Rosenkavalier,"  since  by  doing  so  he  was 
able  to  command  larger  royalties  and  enforce  more  rigorous 
demands  than  had  ever  been  heard  of  before  for  its  produc- 
tion. The  conditions  explain  in  part  the  action  of  the  Met- 
ropolitan Opera  Company  in  giving  the  opera  first  outside 
of  the  regular  subscription  and  in  exacting  an  abnormal  fee 
for  the  privilege  of  hearing  it. 


"  L'AMORE  DEI  TRE  RE  "  313 

Without  much  trumpeting,  as  if  it  were  a  matter  of 
course  indeed,  the  management  of  the  Metropolitan  brought 
forward  a  new  opera  on  January  14,  1914.  It  was  a  new 
opera  in  a  special  sense,  for  "  L'Amore  dei  tre  Re  "  was 
scarcely  a  year  old,  if  it  was  that,  and  up  to  its  New  York 
production  had  been  heard  only  in  two  opera  houses,  and 
those  in  Italy.  This  circumstance,  associated  as  it  must  be 
with  some  of  the  new  productions  of  the  five  years  pre- 
ceding, indicates  a  closer  relationship  than  ever  existed  be- 
fore between  the  establishment  in  Broadway  and  the  com- 
posers and  publishers  of  Europe.  Montemezzi's  "  L'Amore 
dei  tre  Re  "  is  a  tragedy  to  which  the  author  of  the  book 
has  given  a  romantic  setting  which  suggests  a  historical 
period  and  historical  peoples  without  putting  a  historical 
clog  upon  the  hearers.  In  this  he  has  been  followed  by  the 
composer  who,  though  he  uses  the  musical  vehicle  which  is 
the  characteristic  glory  of  his  own  country  and  borrows  a 
device  of  dramatic  expression  which  is  equally  characteris- 
tic of  a  different  country,  yet  speaks  in  the  language  proper 
to  the  proclamation  of  passions  which  know  no  distinction 
of  time  or  people.  The  poet's  name  is  Sem  Benelli,  and  he 
wrote  his  play  not  as  a  drama  to  be  sung,  but  as  a  drama  to 
be  spoken.  To  fit  it  for  opera  some  elisions  were  made 
and  a  scene  for  chorus  added.  A  fine,  strong  play  it  i?,  in 
fine,  strong  verse,  picturesque  but  direct,  with  a  splendid 
command  of  the  elements  which  make  a  drama  effective  in 
its  appeal  to  eye,  ear,  and  emotions.  It  would  be  difficult 
to  recall  another  opera  in  which  there  is  a  more  puissant 
exhibit  of  contrast  in  character,  of  conflicting  motives,  of 
the  devasting  result  of  passions  at  war  with  one  another,  all 
of  which,  nevertheless,  challenge  sympathy  in  an  almost 
equal  degree.  To  the  careless  reader  there  is  something 
misleading  in  the  title.  The  story  is  that  of  the  love  of 
three  royal  personages,  but  not  wholly  of  the  passion  which 
is  the  burden  of  mediaeval  as  well  as  modern  romance.  A 
barbarian  who  has  made  himself  king  of  an  undefined  ter- 


314  A  FINE  DRAMATIC  POEM 

ritory  in  Italy  kills  the  wife  of  his  son  because  of  her  adul- 
tery. This  king's  passion  is  love  for  his  son  and  the  honor 
of  his  family.  He  is  old  and  blind;  his  reign  began  forty 
years  before  the  opening  of  the  story,  and  there  is  nothing 
in  the  likelihood  of  nature,  his  acts,  or  speeches  which  indi- 
cates the  possibility  of  his  harboring  a  carnal  passion  for  the 
young  native  princess  who  was  given  to  him  to  be  his  son's 
wife  by  her  people  as  the  price  of  peace.  The  son  is  a  war- 
rior whose  love  for  his  wife  is  so  pure  and  strong  that,  con- 
fronted with  proof  of  her  guilty  commerce  with  another,  he 
can  only  pity  her  and  love  her  the  more,  even  to  the  utter- 
most of  his  own  undoing.  To  the  old  king  this  trait  in  the 
character  of  his  son,  whom  he  had  trained  in  all  the  virtues 
of  his  people,  is  a  weakness ;  and  he  takes  it  upon  himself 
to  avenge  the  wrong  done  to  his  son,  his  house,  and  his 
race.  Groping  in  the  dark,  left  to  his  own  devices,  and 
hampered  by  the  treachery  of  his  servant,  he  yet  discovers 
the  unfaithfulness  of  his  son's  wife,  and,  though  he  can  not 
know  who  is  the  partner  of  her  guilt,  he  throttles  her. 

The  lover  is  of  the  people  of  the  princess  and  was  be- 
trothed to  her  before  she  became  perforce  a  hostage  and  a 
loveless  wife.  His  passion  is  like  that  of  Tristan,  Romeo, 
and  all  their  fellows  who  have  lived  since  the  human  race 
began.  There  is  pathos  in  its  fierceness  and  in  the  fatality 
which  enshrouds  it  from  its  first  disclosure.  There  is  a  greater 
pathos  in  the  struggle  which  takes  place  in  the  heart  of  the 
young  wife  when  she  feels  the  first  movings  of  a  love  for 
her  husband  awakened  by  recognition  of  the  overwhelming 
tenderness  of  his  affection ;  and  a  still  greater  pathos  in  the 
conduct  of  the  outraged  husband  who  can  not  take  revenge 
upon  the  man  upon  whom  his  wife  has  bestowed  the  boon 
for  which  he  feels  an  infinite  longing  and  who  follows  him 
into  death  beside  the  body  of  the  one  who  had  been  so  dear 
to  both.  And  when,  at  the  last,  the  old  man  is  left  alone  in 
the  darkness  made  trebly  black  by  the  triple  destruction 
which  he  has  wrought — for  lover  and  husband  had  both 


ITALO  MOXTKMKZZI 
Composer  of  "I.'Amore  doi  tre   Re' 


OPERATIC  PARALLELS  RECALLED  315 

sucked  death  in  kissing  the  lips  of  the  woman  whom  he  had 
killed  and  whose  mouth  he  had  smeared  with  poison  in  the 
last  despairing  hope  of  thus  discovering  who  had  wronged 
his  son  and  his  house — there  is  a  pathos  which  is  infinite  in 
his  impotent  desolation  and  mute  despair. 

In  this  story,  but  more  especially  in  its  presentation,  there 
are  many  dramatic  motivi  which  have  done  service  in  other 
dramas.     Involuntarily  we  think  of  the  tale  of  Tristram 
and  Yseult,  of  Romeo  and  Juliet,  of  Francesca  da  Rimini, 
of  Pelleas  and  Melisande.    There  are  moments  when  a  cur- 
sory glance  might  almost  make  one  think  one  or  the  other 
of  these  plays  was  occupying  the  stage ;   for  instance,  when 
Fiora,  the  princess,  is  seen  waving  her  scarf  from  the  castle 
terrace,  and  when  Avito,  the  lover,  comes  into  the  crypt  of 
the  castle  to  say  farewell  to  his  dead  love.     But  there  is  a 
large  difference  between  Benelli's  treatment  of  these  epi- 
sodes and  the  apparent  sources  which  I  have  cited.     Isolde 
waves  her  scarf  wildly  to  call  her  lover  to  her  side ;   Fiora 
waves  hers  with  a  breaking  heart  and  heavy  arm  to  speed 
her  parting  husband,  though  she  can  not  but  know  that  his 
going  is  only  a  preface  to  the  coming  of  Avito.    The  strug- 
gle between  love  and  duty  has  begun.    Here  it  must  be  said 
of  the  poet,  as  it  must  also  be  said  of  the  composer,  that  he 
is  so  strong  and  self-reliant  in  the  command  of  his  theme 
and  all  its  agencies  of  expression  that  the  parallels  only  serve 
to  illustrate  the  aphorism  of  Fuselli :    "  Genius  may  adopt, 
but  it  never  steals."     The  remark  is,  indeed,  more  signifi- 
cant as  applied  to  Signor  Italo  Montemezzi  'than  to  Signer 
Benelli.    Not  only  the  scene  of  the  scarf  but  other  episodes 
must  have  called  up  memories  in  his  mind  of  masterpieces 
which  can  scarcely  be  thought  of  without  tempting  the  crea- 
tive musician  to  imitation.     The  imitation  may  be  uncon- 
scious, but  it  is  seldom  missing.    Echoes  of  the  night  of  love 
in  the  Tristan  tragedy  have  floated  down  from  the  stage  of 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  several  times  since  Wagner's 
great  music  first  became .  domiciled  there.     There  are  no 


316  MOUSSORGSKY  AND  MONTEMEZZI 

echoes  in  "  L'Amore  dei  tre  Re  "  of  either  the  love  duet  or 
the  music  which  brings  her  lover  to  Fiora's  feet.  Neither, 
and  for  this  there  might  be  a  special  expression  of  gratitude, 
are  the  pallid  reflections  of  Debussy  or  reverberations 
of  Puccini.  Montemessi  is  proof  against  temptation.  This 
young  composer  speaks  a  speech  all  his  own,  and  his  score, 
I  fancy,  would  have  delighted  the  soul  of  Verdi  when,  seeing 
the  aberrations  of  his  young  confreres,  he  sat  himself  down 
in  his  old  age  to  show  them  an  example  of  devotion  to  their 
country's  art. 

"  L'Amore  "  is  an  example  of  the  fine  fruit  of  "  Boris 
Godounow  "  grafted  on  an  Italian  stem.  What  does  that 
mean?  Only  this:  That  Signor  Montemezzi  has  borrowed 
from  Moussorgsky  a  constructive  feature  which,  though  it 
has  a  national  value  in  Russian  music  which  it  lacks  in 
Italian,  is  still  of  fine  dramatic  effectiveness.  Melodically 
he  is  all  Italian  and  a  legitimate  grandson  of  Verdi ;  but  his 
melodies,  which  flow  onward  like  a  river,  now  tumultuously 
as  they  carry  the  passion  of  the  lovers  on  their  current,  now 
gently  with  wooing  murmurs  as  they  float  the  emotions  of 
the  loving  and  magnanimous  Man f  redo,  and  anon  interrupt- 
edly when  they  are  broken  into  fragments  by  the  dialogue, 
are  as  a  rule  superimposed  on  persistently  reiterated  rhyth- 
mical and  melodic  figures.  Sometimes  this  ostinato  accom- 
paniment hae.  a  delineative  purpose,  as  when  we  hear  in  it 
the  coming  and  going  of  Manf redo  and  his  warriors ;  but  as 
a  rule  the  purpose  of  its  employment  is  purely  constructive 
and  the  composer's  splendid  command  of  the  stage  and  of 
musical  expression  enables  him  to  give  the  figures  a  dra- 
matic potency  which  at  times  reaches  the  marvelous  and 
approaches  his  model.  He  shows  equal  mastery  of  the  po- 
tentialities of  harmony  and  orchestral  color  by  means  of 
which  he  not  only  puts  a  glow  into  his  sustained  melody, 
but  also  greatly  heightens  the  emotional  power  of  that  por- 
tion of  his  dialogue  which  hovers  between  speech  and  song. 
Though  he  occasionally  makes  use  of  reminiscent  phrases, 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  OPERA  317 

he  does  not  employ  musical  symbols  in  the  Wagnerian  man- 
ner. His  genius  is  of  the  inspirational-creative,  not  of  the 
reflective  order;  facts  make  his  successful  blending  of  the 
Russian  device — a  folksong  element  in  Muscovite  music — 
with  Italian  melody  all  the  more  admirable. 

Poet  and  composer  have  left  us  without  clue  as  to  even 
the  approximate  period  in  which  the  drama  plays.  But 
the  question  of  time  does  not  obtrude  itself  because  of  the 
eloquent  manner  in  which  poet  and  composer  have  given 
voice  to  a  tale  which  might  be  told  of  any  time  and  any 
people.  The  burden  of  the  representation  falls  upon  four 
persons — the  representatives  of  the  old  king  (Archibaldo), 
his  son  (Manfredo),  the  faithless  wife  (Fiora),  and  her 
lover  (Avito).  There  is  but  little  ensemble  singing,  and 
that  is  confined  to  the  last  act,  where  the  poet,  to  fit  his  play 
for  operatic  treatment,  has  introduced  a  hymn  and  a  species 
of  choral  dialogue  which,  like  the  ostinato  figures  mentioned, 
has  a  prototype  in  Moussorgsky's  opera.  In  this  choral 
there  is  a  brief  eruption  of  the  political  element,  which  also 
plays  its  part  in  evoking  sympathy  for  the  lovers  and  saving 
their  conduct  from  utter  condemnation.  Like  all  the  other 
ethical  and  psychological  factors,  it  is  introduced  into  the 
drama  with  great  deftness  and  achieves  its  purpose  without 
attracting  attention  to  itself  or  asking  for  accentuation 
through  local  color.  If  it  has  a  symbol  it  is  the  haunting  music 
of  flute  and  horn,  which,  like  the  lark's  song  in  "  Romeo  and 
Juliet,"  is  the  herald  of  the  morn  and  a  sign  of  parting 
that  comes  back  like  a  memory  in  some  other  climaxes  of 
the  second  act. 

One  of  the  performers  in  this  first  representation  of  the 
opera  outside  of  Italy  was  the  original  creator  of  the  part  of 
Avito  in  Milan — Signor  Ferrari-Fontana,  the  husband  of 
Mme.  Matzenauer,  who  was  then  a  member  of  the  Boston 
Opera  Company,  but  afterward  became  a  member  of  the 
New  York  organization.  The  opera  established  a  hold  upon 
the  admiration  of  the  public  and  was  one  of  those  entitled 


318  VICTOR  HERBERT'S  "MADELEINE" 

to  special  consideration  because  it  had  no  adventitious  helps 
in  the  way  of  popular  idols  to  give  it  permanency.  Its  per- 
formances were  interrupted  for  a  space  by  the  misfortune 
which  overtook  Signorina  Lucrezia  Bori  in  the  next  season, 
but  even  without  that  lovely  interpreter  of  the  princess  its 
subsequent  revival  was  successful.  Signor  Toscanini  con- 
ducted the  performances,  and  the  parts  in  the  opera  were 
thus  distributed : 

Archibaldo Adamo  Didur 

Manf redo Pasquale  Amato 

Avito  Edoardo  Ferrari  -Fontana 

Flaminio Angelo  Bada 

Un  Giovinetto  Pietro  Audisio 

Fiora  Lucrezia  Bori 

Ancella  Jeanne  Maubourg 

Una  Giovinetta  Sophie  Braslau 

Una  Vecchia Maria  Duchene 

How  sadly  a  play  based  on  a  conceit  which  is  irradiated 
by  a  pretty  humor  and  made  mellow  and  gracious  by  a  sen- 
timent of  universal  appeal  could  be  spoiled  by  an  attempt 
to  turn  it  into  an  English  opera  was  demonstrated  on  the 
afternoon  of  January  24,  1914,  when  a  piece  in  one  act 
entitled  "  Madeleine "  was  performed  for  the  first  time. 
The  book  of  the  opera  was  adapted  from  the  French  of 
Decourcelles  and  Thibaut  by  Grant  Stewart ;  the  music  was 
composed  by  Victor  Herbert.  In  the  official  prospectus  of 
the  season  Mr.  Gatti  announced  that  it  was  intended  to  rep- 
resent "  the  National  Art  of  Music,"  which  fact  may  be  set 
down  as  a  deplorable  incident  in  view  of  the  fact  that  Pro- 
fessor Parker's  "  Mona,"  with  which  the  directors  of  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House  made  a  noble  experiment  in  the 
line  of  national  art,  had  been  put  upon  the  shelf  and  the  ef- 
forts of  other  American  musicians  ignored.  What  the  orig- 
inal French  play  which  provided  the  dramatic  framework 
for  "  Madeleine  "  is  like  I  do  not  know.  Certain  it  is  that 
its  story  is  amiable  and  that  in  the  hands  of  a  litterateur 
with  poetical  instincts  and  a  composer  with  a  light  touch,  a 


LUCREZIA    BORI 
In  "L'Amore  dei  tre  Re' 


A  GRACEFUL  FRENCH  STORY  SPOILED  319 

command  of  gracious  and  graceful  melody,  and  a  knowledge 
of  the  essential  elements  of  refined  comedy  (such  a  com- 
poser as  Wolf -Ferrari,  for  instance),  it  might  have  been 
made  into  a  delightful  opera.  Its  humor  is  summed  up  in 
the  conceit  that  an  opera-singer,  accustomed  to  the  homage 
of  the  world,  finds  herself  unable  to  get  her  favored  lover, 
his  hated  rival,  an  humble  friend  of  her  humble  childhood, 
or  even  her  maid  to  dine  with  her  on  New  Year's  Day  be- 
cause all  have  promised  to  dine  with  their  respective  moth- 
ers. Sweet  and  chastened  memories  are  thus  forced  upon 
her  and  in  the  end  she  finds  happiness  and  contentment  in 
the  companionship  of  her  own  mother's  portrait. 

The  dramatic  motive  is  lovely  and  no  doubt  was  in- 
geniously and  sympathetically  developed  by  the  French 
authors.  Its  gentle  appeal  was  felt  in  the  operatic  trans- 
mogrification only  for  a  few  moments  after  the  last  words 
had  been  uttered  and  the  orchestra  sang  its  postlude  with 
the  heroine  of  the  play  seated  at  the  table  bowed  before  her 
mother's  picture,  lost  in  tender  thoughts  and  emotions  to 
which  the  instruments  gave  lovely  expression.  The  rest  was 
futile,  far-fetched,  frivolous,  fuliginous,  fumid  fustian  in 
the  score  and  inept  ill-advised  operatic  idiom  in  the  text. 
It  did  not  need  the  coming  of  "  Madeleine  "  to  demonstrate 
that  if  the  vernacular  is  to  be  greeted  with  pleasure  when 
used  in  opera  it  must  neither  be  the  English  of  every-day 
speech  nor  of  stilted  rhetoric,  but  the  speech  of  a  raised  and 
poetic  fancy.  It  is  a  little  less  disturbing  to  one's  equanim- 
ity to  hear  a  maid  tell  her  mistress  that  for  dinner  she  shall 
have  "  soup  a  la  reine,  woodcock,  and  asparagus,"  than  to 
have  her  soliloquize  "  and  still  more  gifts  to  swell  the  sum 
of  those  already  here  " ;  but  there  is  no  difference  in  the 
absurdity  of  the  two  speeches  when  they  are  set  to  music  in 
the  declamatory  style  which  is  affected  by  the  new  com- 
posers and  which  Mr.  Herbert  essayed  in  "  Madeleine." 
Speeches  like  these  were  given  out  in  tones  prompted  by 
nothing  in  their  contents,  separated  from  each  other  by 


320  THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  OPERA 

gasps  and  rumbles,  squeaks  and  short  phrases  with  all  sorts 
of  efforts  at  instrumental  color.  Then  came  long  speeches 
in  which  all  lyricism  is  relegated  to  the  orchestra,  but  which 
gain  nothing  in  expressiveness  from  that  fact  while  losing 
a  great  deal  from  strained  and  unnatural  declamation.  Of 
sustained  melody,  or  of  the  periodic  melody  with  which  Mr. 
Herbert  had  won  favor  with  his  operettas,  there  are  only 
three  examples  in  the  score  of  the  opera.  They  are  a  little 
6/8  tune  which  has  its  model  in  a  hundred  English  and 
Irish  folksongs,  a  melody  which  threatens  to  become  native 
to  its  creator  by  breaking  into  a  waltz,  and  a  suave  and 
lovely  melody  which  is  as  likable  as  Massenet's  "  Ouvre  tes 
yeux  bleux,"  which  it  recalls  on  its  every  repetition.  This 
is  the  tune  which  brings  solace  and  delight  and  works  atone- 
ment for  many  of  the  arid  stretches  of  the  score  when  it 
rings  down  the  curtain  at  the  close.  It  is  a  symbol  of  the 
tender  emotion  which  pervades  the  story  and  contributes  a 
quota  to  the  Wagnerian  system  of  typical  phrases  which  Mr. 
Herbert  employs.  The  first  melody  is  used  to  recall  the 
childhood  home  of  Madeleine  and  the  lover  of  her  youth, 
while  the  greatly  sophisticated  second  tune  gives  musical 
voice  to  the  aristocratic  lover,  the  Due  d'Estree.  In  all 
these  instances  Mr.  Herbert  shows  ingenuity  in  his  harmoni- 
zation, following  some  latter-day  men  to  the  extreme  in  the 
employment  of  dissonances,  and  also  skill  in  instrumenta- 
tion. Three  times  does  the  composer  work  up  a  dynamic 
climax  and  each  time  with  as  little  provocation  as  suffices 
Richard  Strauss  in  "  Der  Rosenkavalier."  In  this  opera  a 
notary  closes  his  portfolio  with  a  noise  like  the  crack  of 
doom.  In  "  Madeleine  "  all  the  elements  seem  to  unite  in 
a  shriek  when  the  Due  d'Estree  turns  Madeleine  free  and 
they  bolt  through  a  crowd,  when  my  lady  flies  into  a  petu- 
lant tantrum  because  no  one  will  dine  with  her,  and  finally 
when  her  boy-lover,  Didier  the  painter,  kisses  her  chastely 
on  the  cheek.  This  being  a  first  performance,  the  cast  is 
appended : 


MASSENET'S  "DON  QUICHOTTE"  321 

Madeleine  Fleury,  of  the  Opera  Frances  Alda 

Nichette,  her  maid  Leonora  Sparkes 

Chevalier  de  Mauprat    A.   Pini-Corsi 

Francois,  Due  d'Estree   Paul  Althouse 

Didier,  a  painter  A.  de  Segurola 

Conductor,   Giorgio   Polacco 

When  the  Chicago- Philadelphia  Opera  Company  made  its 
visit  it  continued  its  perpetuation  of  the  traditions  of  the 
Manhattan  Opera  House,  as  it  no  doubt  will  continue  to  do 
as  long  as  Miss  Mary  Garden  is  associated  with  it.  This 
being  so,  there  was  nothing  surprising  in  the  fact  that  three 
of  the  novelties  which  that  lady  introduced  to  America 
should  have  been  included  in  the  list  of  operas  performed 
by  the  company  at  the  Metropolitan.  The  first  of  these 
was  Massenet's  "  Don  Quichotte,"  which  was  brought  for- 
ward on  February  3,  1914.  The  opera  was  given  with  this 
distribution  of  parts : 

La  belle  Dulcinee  Mary  Garden 

Don  Quichotte  Vanni  Marcoux 

Sancho  Hector  Dufranne 

Pedro   Minnie  Egener 

Garcias  Helen  Warrum 

Rodrigues    Emilio    Venturino 

Juan  Edmond  Warnery 

Le  Chef  de  Bandits  Constantin  Nicolay 

The  conductor  was  Cleofonte  Campanini.  "  Don  Qui- 
chotte "  was  one  of  the  later  but  not  the  last  work  of  Mas- 
senet, and  did  not  show  as  great  a  decay  of  his  powers  as 
operas  of  his  which  were  brought  to  the  attention  of  New 
York  through  the  same  industrious  agency  later.  Its  book 
was  made  by  Henri  Cain  after  a  French  play  by  M.  le  Lor- 
raine. To  the  playwright  is  due  the  structure  of  the  piece, 
the  posture  and  sequence  of  its  incidents.  French  libret- 
tists have  no  bowels  of  compassion  for  classic  authors  or 
reverence  for  their  masterpieces.  Shakespeare  and  Goethe 
were  despoiled  for  Thomas  and  Gounod,  and  now  Cervantes 
was  made  to  pay  tribute  to  Massenet.  Of  the  immortal  ro- 
mance I  could  find  little  else  in  the  opera  besides  the  names 


322  DESPOLIATION  OF  CERVANTES 

of  three  characters,  Don  Quixote's  horse,  and  Sancho  Pan- 
za's  ass ;  and  even  horse  and  ass  were  calculated  to  excite 
commiseration.  The  great  Spaniard's  story  has  haunted  the 
minds  of  opera-writers  for  two  centuries.  There  ought  to 
be  something  in  it  for  a  lyrical  dramatist,  for  it  contains  a 
world  of  suggestive  beauty  for  the  lover  of  imaginative 
comedy  literature  of  the  highest  type  and  of  the  chivalry 
whose  mockery  it  was  written  to  chastise  in  a  most  lovable 
spirit. 

The  French  creators  of  the  opera  found  nothing  of  all 
this.  They  used  none  of  the  familiar  incidents  except  the 
lamentable  adventure  with  the  windmills,  which  offered  an 
opportunity  for  an  amusing  stage  illusion.  Don  Quixote 
is  seen  charging  twice  across  the  stage,  lance  couched,  a 
gigantic  windmill  waving  its  arms  in  the  mid-distance. 
Anon  a  dummy  is  seen  flying  through  the  air,  and  just  be- 
fore the  curtain  closes  Sancho  leads  Dapple  across  the  stage 
burdened  with  the  wrecked  knight  and  followed  by  Rosi- 
nante  with  his  eye  in  a  bandage.  That  must  recompense  the 
lover  of  Cervantes  for  the  omission  of  such  episodes  as  the 
attack  upon  the  flock  of  sheep,  the  battle  with  the  wine- 
skins, the  adventure  of  Mambrino's  helmet,  Sancho's  gov- 
ernment on  the  Island  of  Barataria,  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
incidents  which  have  diverted  the  world  ever  since  Cer- 
vantes wrote.  Worse  than  that,  the  knight  is  made  a  farci- 
cal figure  until  his  death,  and  even  then  the  pathos  which  he 
ought  to  challenge  is  lacking  because,  while  the  composer 
does  his  best  to  atone  for  the  invertebrate  music  with  which 
he  has  filled  the  preceding  acts,  the  dramatist  knew  not  how 
to  utilize  the  simple  device  with  which  the  novelist  grips 
the  heartstrings  of  his  readers.  As  for  Sancho  Panza,  he 
is  transformed  into  a  conventional  buffoon  and  Dulcinea 
into  a  conventional  operatic  strumpet. 

It  would  try  one's  patience  to  tell  the  story  of  the  opera 
if  it  were  not  so  foolish  and  attenuate.  As  the  audience  saw 


DECADENCE  OF  MASSENET'S  GENIUS  323 

it  it  is  quickly  summarized :  Act  I :  People  dressed  in  Span- 
ish costumes  sing  and  dance  to  Spanish  rhythms  under 
Dulcinea's  window.  Mary  Garden  appears  on  the  balcony, 
throws  flowers  to  her  admirers,  and  utters  sounds  which 
ought  never  to  be  heard  in  an  institution  professedly  de- 
voted to  art.  Don  Quixote  serenades  her,  fights  a  duel, 
and  is  sent  by  the  lady  in  quest  of  a  necklace  stolen  by  ban- 
dits. Act  II :  Don  Quixote  sings  fa-la-las,  tries  to  find 
rhymes  for  a  love-poem,  charges  a  windmill,  and  a  dummy 
is  thrown  into  the  wings.  Act  III :  Don  Quixote  falls  into 
the  hands  of  the  bandits,  whose  stern  natures  are  melted  by 
his  magnanimity  and  pious  prayer,  and  instead  of  slaugh- 
tering him  they  give  him  the  necklace  and  let  him  go.  Act 
IV:  Don  Quixote  brings  back  the  jewels  and  claims  the 
hand  of  Dulcinea  as  his  reward ;  now  she  imitates  the  ban- 
dits in  having  a  virtuous  fit  and  dismisses  the  misguided 
man  with  a  confession  of  her  wicked  character.  Act  V : 
The  knight  dies  of  a  broken  heart,  bequeathing  all  his  pos- 
sessions ("the  beautiful  island  of  dreams")  to  his  faithful 
squire. 

Thus  does  an  immortal  literary  masterpiece  present  itself 
to  the  sophisticated  operatic  eye.  As  for  the  music,  it  dis- 
closes Massenet's  unfailing  mastery  of  operatic  craftsman- 
ship, but  also  the  decay  of  his  melodic  inventiveness.  Its 
moments  of  beauty  are  few  and  are  confined  to  the  closing 
scenes.  The  rest  invites  a  tear  of  commiseration  from  the 
admirers  of  "  Werther  "  and  "  Manon." 

To  the  pure  all  things  are  pure.  In  a  beautiful  sense 
that  is  true ;  but  the  doings  of  the  purveyors  of  dramatic 
entertainments  and  of  some  of  their  show-people  have  never 
tempted  persons  inclined  to  decency  to  think  that  the  axiom 
was  the  motive  which  prompts  managers  to  produce  pictures 
of  pudicity  and  lewdness  on  the  stage.  Sometimes  there  is 
a  confession  much  more  convincing  than  all  moral  purpose 
in  the  simple  sequence  of  theatrical  events.  After  Mary 


324  NUDITY  AS  AN  OPERATIC  ASSET 

Garden,  under  the  morally  uplifting  management  of  Mr. 
Hammerstein,  had  demonstrated  the  commercial  effective- 
ness of  the  kind  which  Phryne's  counsel  employed  in  a 
famous  case  of  antiquity  in  Massenet's  "  Thais  "  and  Rich- 
ard Strauss's  "  Salome,"  it  caused  no  wonderment  when 
the  announcement  went  forth  that  the  next  novelty  with 
which  Miss  Garden  would  help  the  moral  uplift  would  be 
the  operatic  version  of  Maeterlinck's  "  Monna  Vanna."  In 
"  Thais  "  she  had  disclosed  herself  with  as  little  raiment  as 
a  generous  law  allowed — but  only  for  a  moment.  In  "  Sa- 
lome "  she  was  permitted  to  divest  herself  gradually  of  most 
of  her  bodily  covering.  She  did  not  go  quite  to  the  extreme 
of  Istar  in  her  famous  descent  to  the  Underworld,  but  it 
was  at  least  hinted  that  she  might  when  it  was  announced 
that  her  next  opera  would  be  "  Monna  Vanna,"  in  which, 
were  she  to  carry  realism  to  its  limit,  she  would  be  able  to 
appear  before  the  public  clad  in  a  loose  cloak,  her  hair,  her 
cuticle,  and  nothing  else. 

Circumstances  interfered  with  that  delectable  purpose, 
which,  it  is  needless  to  say,  would  never  have  been  carried 
out  literally,  until  the  Chicago  Company  gave  Fevrier's 
opera  on  the  evening  of  February  17,  1914.  By  this  time 
the  varnish  of  sensationalism  had  been  worn  off  by  per- 
formances in  Boston,  Philadelphia,  and  Chicago.  Perhaps 
elsewhere  also.  At  any  rate,  New  York  came  in  a  bad 
fourth  and  could  not  be  properly  and  profitably  shocked. 
Meanwhile  only  Vincent  d'Indy,  so  far  as  I  know,  had  con- 
ceived the  idea  of  showing  a  character  in  its  progressive 
stages  of  divestment  from  gorgeous  attire  to  the  opposite 
extreme,  and  he  did  it  instrumentally  by  the  ingenious  de- 
vice of  a  downward  development  from  elaborate  variations 
to  a  simple  theme  lacking  even  the  covering  of  harmony. 
But  that  device  was  so  artistically  sophisticated  that  it  could 
harm  nobody's  sensibilities.  We  are  no  more  shocked  by  a 
naked  tune  than  we  are  by  a  naked  tree.  Neither  was  there 
anything  shocking — except,  perhaps,  to  those  keenly  sus- 


F^VRIER'S  "MONNA  VANNA"  325 

ceptible  to  suggestion — in  this  performance  of  Fevrier's 
opera. 

In  its  primitive  estate  the  theme  of  Maeterlinck's  "  Monna 
Vanna  "  is  that  of  the  old  legend  of  the  Lady  Godiva ;  but 
it  has  been  tricked  out  with  certain  elements  which  make  it 
piquant  to  the  modern  taste.  The  lady,  to  save  her  city, 
goes  to  the  beleaguering  enemy's  general  clad  in  her  virtue 
and  her  cloak — no  more.  She  is  willing  to  sacrifice  both 
for  her  people,  but  the  apparently  victorious  tyrant  is  con- 
quered by  her  innocence  and  a  love  dating  back  to  her  child- 
hood which  makes  her  person  sacred  to  him.  When  she 
returns  to  the  city  her  husband  refuses  to  believe  the  story 
of  her  chastity  and  his  enemy's  magnanimity,  so  she  is 
forced  to  practise  deception  and  save  the  magnanimous  man 
who  has  again  become  her  lover.  A  Shakespeare  might 
have  whitened  the  innocency  of  his  heroine  as  he  did  in  the 
case  of  Imogen  despite  the  disclosure  of  the  "  mole,  cinque- 
spotted,"  or  a  Tennyson  have  left  her  purity  unquestioned 
as  he  did  Lady  Godiva's.  But  such  a  device  could  not  serve 
the  purposes  of  a  modern  playwright.  Monna  Vanna  must 
at  the  end  deceive  her  husband  and  run  away  with  the 
man  who  had  demanded  the  sacrifice  which  she  was  willing 
to  pay  but  he  unwilling  to  accept. 

There  is  an  old  story  that  a  good  play,  especially  a  good 
literary  play,  does  not  necessarily  make  a  good  opera.  In 
fact,  it  might  be  stated  as  a  rule  that  the  better  the  play  the 
poorer  the  resultant  opera,  unless  it  contains  moments  of 
sustained  lyrical  exaltation  which  invites  song — real  song. 
Maeterlinck's  "  Monna  Vanna  "  is  the  kind  of  play  which 
can  only  be  hampered  by  music  so  long  as  it  is  left  in  its 
original  state.  Its  dramatic  and  literary  value  would  evapo- 
rate if  paraphrased  so  that  tunes  might  be  adjusted  to  it, 
but  this  not  having  been  done  it  would  have  been  better  to 
have  let  it  alone  than  to  burden  its  speeches  with  music 
which  does  not  intensify  but  only  clogs  them.  And  it  is  a 
play  of  speeches  only.  The  music  which  Fevrier  has  hitched 


326  CHARPENTIER'S  "JULIEN" 

to  it  is  dull — a  hindrance,  not  a  help.    Cleofonte  Campanini 
conducted  the  performance  and  this  was  the  cast : 


Monna  Vanna Mary  Garden 

Prinzivalle Lucien   Muratore 

Guido Vanni  Marcoux 

Marco   Gustav  Huberdeau 

Vedio   Edmond  Warnery 

Borso   Etienne  Contesso 

Torello  Desire  Def rere 

Trivulzio Constantin  Nicolay 

Charpentier's  "  Julien,"  produced  on  January  27,  1914, 
came  freighted  with  gloomy  forebodings  from  Paris,  where 
it  had  received  its  premiere  on  the  preceding  third  of  June 
at  the  Opera  Comique.  As  a  promised  sequel  to  "  Louise  " 
and  the  product  of  the  composer  who  had  been  acclaimed 
by  enthusiastic  friends  as  the  greatest  successor  of  Gounod, 
the  Parisian  public  had  displayed  great  interest  in  it,  but  the 
critics  had  not  been  deceived.  They  declared  it  to  be  ob- 
scure in  purpose,  undramatic,  and  much  inferior  in  melodic 
invention  to  its  predecessors.  It  turned  out  to  be  all  these 
things  and  more.  The  natural  curiosity  of  a  public  which 
had  given  a  large  measure  of  admiration  to  "  Louise,"  the 
desperate  need  of  Mr.  Gatti  to  provide  a  sensation  for  the 
season,  the  combined  popularity  of  Miss  Farrar  and  Mr. 
Caruso,  all  £hese  failed  to  win  for  Charpentier's  opera  what 
might  even  be  dignified  by  the  term  succes  d'estime.  It  was 
a  failure,  dragged  its  tedious  length  through  five  perform- 
ances, and  sank  into  the  pit  of  oblivion.  It  was  performed 
under  the  direction  of  Giorgio  Polacca,  with  the  following 
cast: 


Julien  Enrico  Caruso 

Louise 
La  Beaute 

La  Jeune  Fille    }- Geraldine  Farrar 

L'Aieule 
La  Fille 


ENRICO  CARUSO 
As  Julien 


GRENVILLE  VERNON'S  CRITICISM  327 

L'Hierophante  ~] 

Le  Paysan         >• Dinh  Gilly 

Le  Mage  J 

La  Paysanne  Maria  Duchene 

f  Rosina  Vandyck 
Louise  Cox 
Vera  Curtis 
Marie  Mattfeld 


Les  Filles  du  Reve  et  Chimeres 


Sophie  Braslau 
Maria  Duchene 
w  Lila  Robeson 
Un  Casseur  de  Pierres  "j 

Une  Voix  de  1'Abime      > Paolo  Ananian 

Un  Camarade  J 

L' Acolyte   Albert  Reiss 

L'Ornciant  Lambert  Murphy 

Une  Voix  de  lAbtme     f 

Un  Ouvrier   Angelo  Bada 

Un  Bucheron   •. Pietro  Audisio 

Garcons  de  Cafe   .  \  TVincenzo  Reschi^lian 

j  Julius  Bayer 

f  Louise  Cox 
Trois  Fees   •<  Vera  Curtis 

L  Rosina  Vandyck 

Concerning  its  story,  Mr.  Grenville  Vernon,  who  wrote  a 
criticism  on  the  performance  and  who  made  a  record  of  its 
failure,  wrote  in  the  Tribune,  in  my  absence  from  the  city, 
as  follows: 


It  is  an  allegorical  series  of  tableaux  depicting  the  disintegration 
of  a  poet's  soul,  through  disappointment,  doubt,  spiritual  pride,  and 
sensuality.  Julien  is  the  same  poet  who  figures  in  "  Louise,"  and 
the  action  opens  in  his  room  in  the  Villa  Medici,  in  Rome.  Here  he 
is  living  in  happiness  with  Louise,  his  soul  aflame  with  the  vision  of 
Beauty  with  which  he  is  to  regenerate  suffering,  sinning  humanity. 
He  falls  asleep,  and  Louise  regarding  him  laments  the  fact  that  he  is 
daily  becoming  more  and  more  enamored  of  his  work,  and  adds: 

"What  matter,  if  his  genius  makes  him  immortal!  My  future? 
His  work  will  tell  of  it !  That  is  enough  for  me !  " 

With  this  brief  scene  reality  ends,  and  the  rest  of  the  opera, 
which  is  Julien's  dream,  begins. 

Julien  sets  out  to  redeem  the  world.  His  spirit  faints  a  moment 
at  the  sight  of  the  band  of  Poets  who  have  failed,  but  with  Louise 
at  his  side,  as  the  symbol  of  the  Beauty  that  he  seeks,  he  passes  on. 
At  the  Temple  of  Beauty  the  High  Priest  warns  him  of  the  tempta- 


328  WOLF-FERRARI'S  "  L'AMORE  MEDICO  " 

tions  which  beset  him,  but  as  he  persists  he  is  finally  crowned  by 
Louise,  now  become  the  Spirit  of  Beauty,  who  warns  him  to  beware 
of  pride  and  to  love  without  ceasing. 

The  next  act,  laid  in  a  wooded  country,  finds  Julien  already  doubt- 
ing in  his  mission.  Louise,  or  rather  her  spirit,  appears  in  a  young 
girl,  who  would  have  him  stay  with  her  and  her  family,  but  Julien 
repulses  her  and  passes  on.  The  third  act  is  on  the  Breton  coast, 
and  here  the  Poet,  pursued  by  the  phantoms  of  unbelief,  vainly  seeks 
refuge.  The  Grandmother  begs  him  to  believe  in  something  beyond 
himself ;  but  Julien,  listening  to  the  voices  of  the  lost,  with  them 
curses  God. 

Lower  and  lower  he  sinks,  until,  a  human  wreck,  he  emerges  into 
a  riotous  crowd  on  the  Place  Blanche  before  the  Moulin  Rouge. 
Here  he  is  accosted  by  a  girl  of  the  streets,  in  whom  he  recognizes 
the  spirit  of  his  Louise,  but  who  has  sunk  with  his  sinking.  She 
drunkenly  sings  of  the  pleasure  of  carnality.  For  a  moment  he  is 
roused  by  a  vision  of  the  Temple  of  Beauty  and  of  the  mission  to 
which  he  has  been  false — then  he  sinks  in  a  drunken  stupor  at  the 
feet  of  the  lost  girl. 

"  L'Amore  Medico  "  came  late  in  the  season  and  so  was 
prevented  from  having  its  full  quota  of  representations. 
Were  it  the  rule  with  us  that  artistic  merit,  and  that  alone, 
should  give  title  to  permanency,  or  quasi-permanency,  in  a 
repertory,  Wolf-Ferrari's  ingenious  opera  might  have  won 
an  enduring  place  at  the  Metropolitan ;  but  it  is  idle  to  try 
to  look  into  the  minds  of  the  directors  of  opera  companies. 
The  opera  was  new.  It  had  its  first  representation  on  any 
stage  in  Dresden  on  December  4,  1913,  and  reached  New 
York  as  quickly  as  could  have  been  expected,  perhaps,  of 
any  opera  except  one  of  Puccini's,  whose  works,  for  busi- 
ness reasons,  now  open  their  eyes  on  the  stage  lamps  in  the 
American  metropolis.  Signer  Toscanini  conducted  the 
work,  which  was  brought  forward  at  the  Metropolitan  on 
March  25,  1914,  with  the  parts  distributed  thus: 

Arnolfo Antonio  Pini-Corsi 

Lucinda   Lucrezia  Bori 

Clitandro   Italo  Cristalli 

Dr.  Tomes   Leon   Rothier 

Dr.  Desfonandres  Andrea  Segurola 

Dr.  Macrotom   Robert  Leonhardt 

Dr.  Bahis  Angelo  Bada 

Uno   Notaro    Paolo   Ananian 


RICHARD  ALDRICH'S  CRITICISM  329 

The  opera  is  founded  on  Moliere's  "  L'Amour  Medecin," 
the  book  having  been  prepared  for  Signer  Wolf -Ferrari  by 
Enrico  Golisciani.  I  hope  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  re- 
hearse the  plot.  Concerning  the  music,  my  colleague,  Mr. 
Richard  Aldrich,  wrote  in  The  Times  newspaper : 

The  music  of_"-L'Amore  medico"  is  saturated  with  the  spirit  of 
comedy.  It  has  the  mirth  and  verve  of  Moliere's  little  piece.  There 
are  spots  in  it  that  are  slow,  in  which  the  movement  is  unduly 
halted ;  but  they  are  spots  and  for  the  most  part  it  is  buoyant, 
rapid,  and  graceful.  It  abounds  in  fleeting  touches  of  wit,  humor- 
ous characterization  and  volatile  gayety.  The  spirit  of  the  rococo 
period  of  Louis  XIV  breathes  through  it.  Much  might  be  said  in 
analysis  of  the  thematic  structure  of  the  music.  There  is  a  constant 
preoccupation  with  thematic  work,  though  Wolf-Ferrari  is  far 
from  following  the  procedure  of  Wagner  with  ''  leading  motives  " 
and  the  weaving  of  a  broad  and  gorgeously  colored  tapestry  from 
their  figures.  .  .  .  There  is  an  extended  overture  based  on  melodies 
occurring  in  the  opera,  a  true  foreshadowing  of  its  spirit  and  out- 
line of  the  action  to  follow,  an  exquisite  piece  of  raillery  of  reckless 
pace  and  airy  lightness  after  the  slow  introduction.  There  is  an 
intermezzo  played  as  an  introduction  to  the  second  act  which  is 
a  finely  conceived  development  of  the  love-song  of  Clitandro— as 
masterly  in  its  composition  as  it  is  continuing  in  its  effect.  As  for 
the  orchestration  it  is  in  some  ways  the  finest  and  most  skilful  of 
anything  Wolf-Ferrari  has  made  known  here.  It  is  a  somewhat 
richer  score  than  that  of  "  Le  Donne  curiose  "  and  in  the  climaxes 
and  most  boisterous  outbursts  the  composer  has  used  a  fuller  com- 
plement of  orchestral  colors. 

An  incident  which  belongs  to  this  chapter  of  history, 
though  it  happened  after  the  close  of  the  season  of  which 
record  has  just  been  made,  was  the  death  of  Mme.  Lillian 
Nordica,  which  occurred  at  Batavia,  Island  of  Java,  on  May 
10,  1914.  The  lady,  of  whose  early  association  with  opera 
in  New  York  mention  is  made  in  my  "  Chapters  of  Opera," 
to  which  this  book  is  a  sequel,  was  a  passenger  on  the 
steamship  Tasmania,  which  went  ashore  on  Bramble  Cay  in 
the  Gulf  of  Papua  on  December  28,  1913.  She  was  making 
a  concert  tour  of  the  Pacific  Islands,  and  nervous  prostra- 
tion, following  her  experiences  of  the  shipwreck,  produced 
pneumonia.  She  was  sufficiently  recovered  to  sail  for  Bata- 


330  DEATH  OF  LILLIAN  NORDICA 

via  on  April  i,  but  there  she  succumbed  to  the  dread  disease. 
It  had  been  her  intention  to  sail  for  New  York  from  Genoa. 
Mme.  Nordica's  real  name  was  Lillian  Norton,  and  she  was 
a  granddaughter  of  a  revivalist  preacher  known  in  his  day 
as  "  Campmeeting  John  Allen."  She  was  born  in  Farming- 
ton,  Maine,  on  May  12,  1859,  an<^  ner  nrst  musical  studies 
were  made  in  Boston.  After  a  somewhat  extended  concert 
career  she  went  to  Milan  to  study  for  the  opera,  and  effected 
her  debut  at  Brescia  on  April  30,  1879,  as  Violetta  in  "  Tra- 
viata."  She  was  a  member  of  opera  companies  in  Genoa, 
Novara,  and  other  Italian  cities;  Moscow,  St.  Petersburg, 
Dantzig,  Berlin,  and  Paris.  There  she  married  Frederick 
A.  Gower,  a  representative  of  American  electrical  compa- 
nies, and  with  him  came  to  New  York,  where  she  sang  at 
the  Academy  of  Music  on  November  26,  1883.  She  came 
to  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  with  an  Italian  company 
which,  under  the  management  of  Abbey  and  Grau,  gave  a 
series  of  21  performances  after  the  close  of  the  German 
season  of  1889-90.  She  was  also  a  member  of  the  company 
with  which  Mr.  Abbey  re-established  Italian  opera  at  the 
Metropolitan  in  1901-02,  having  been  engaged  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  singing  the  part  of  Selika  in  "  L'Afri- 
caine,"  but  when  the  time  came  Mme.  Lehmann  had  to  be 
brought  in  to  make  the  performance  possible.  Thereafter 
she  was  a  familiar  figure  at  the  Metropolitan  until  she  joined 
Mr.  Hammerstein's  forces  for  a  brief  season  at  the  Man- 
hattan Opera  House  ;  but  her  finest  success,  and  it  was  really 
a  memorable  one,  was  achieved  in  1895,  when  she  sang 
Isolde  to  Jean  de  Reszke's  Tristan  at  the  Broadway  house. 
Then  for  the  first  time  it  was  possible  for  the  reviewer  to 
indulge  in  something  more  than  praise  of  her  beauty  and 
perfunctory  compliments  on  her  voice. 


ENRICO  CARUSO 

In  "Samson  et  Dalila' 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  YEARS  OF  THE  NEUTRALITY  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES  IN  THE  WAR 

REDUCTION  OF  EXPENSES  PLANNED— CARUSO  AND  FARRAR— 
PHENOMENAL  ACTIVITY  OF  THE  COMPANY— NEW  SINGERS 
AND  THEIR  DEBUTS— THE  SEASON  1914-15— NEW  OPERAS— 
"  MADAME  SANS-GENE  "  —  "  L'ORACOLO  "  —  "  EURYANTHE  "  — 
WEBER  AND  WAGNER— THE  LATTER'S  DEBTS  TO  THE  FORMER 
—DEPARTURE  OF  ALFRED  HERTZ— HIS  RECORD  AT  THE 
METROPOLITAN— THE  LOSS  OF  TOSCANINI— SEASON  OF  1915- 
16  — ARRIVAL  OF  MME.  BARRIENTOS  —  "  PRINCE  IGOR  "  — 
"  GOYESCAS  "—SPANISH  PIANOFORTE  PIECES  MADE  INTO  AN 
OPERA— FATE  OF  THE  COMPOSER— A  GERMAN"  VERSION  OF 
"THE  TAMING  OF  THE  SHREW,"  — 1916-17  —  UNNATURAL 
ACTIVITY—"  LES  PECHEURS  DE  PERLES  "—ITS  AMERICAN 
HISTORY— GLUCK'S  "  IPHIGEXIA  AUF  TAURIS  "— "  THE  CAN- 
TERBURY PILGRIMS"— A  SPORADIC  BUT  IDEAL  EFFORT  FOR 
AMERICAN  ART— THE  SOCIETY  GF  AMERICAN  SINGERS- 
MOZART'S  "  BASTIEN  ET  BASTIENNE "  AND  "  THE  IMPRE- 
SARIO  " 

FOR  three  years  after  the  outbreak  of  the  great  war  in 
which  at  the  last  Germany  found  herself  in  battle  with 
nearly  every  civilized  people  of  the  world  there  was  nothing 
to  compel  or  even  invite  a  change  of  policy  on  the  part  of 
the  management  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House.  It 
was  outwardly,  at  least,  as  neutral  in  thought,  word,  and 
deed  as  it  was  possible  for  the  President  of  the  United 
States  to  wish.  In  the  preparations  for  the  work  of  the 
season  1914-15  it  was,  indeed,  necessary  for  Mr.  Gatti  to 
do  a  great  deal  of  work  of  an  unusual  kind,  but  there  was 
nothing  during  the  season  to  embarrass  him  at  all  compar- 
able with  the  threatened  renewal  of  Oscar  Hammerstein's 
rivalry  which  had  vexed  his  soul  during  the  preceding  year. 
The  physical  obstacles  had  been  overcome  even  before  the 
annual  prospectus  was  issued  in  October,  and  all  that  the 


332        WAR  AND  THE  METROPOLITAN'S  SINGERS 

directors  had  to  fear  between  the  day  when  war  was  de- 
clared and  the  opening  of  the  season  on  November  16  was 
the  loss  of  some  of  their  singers  and  a  possible  slump  in 
the  subscriptions.  The  former  danger  loomed  up  as  the 
greater  of  the  two. 

Many  of  the  singers  of  the  Metropolitan  company  were 
foreigners  who  were  accustomed  to  hurry  over  to  Europe 
as  soon  as  the  New  York  season  was  over  either  to  become 
artistically  active  in  the  London  season  at  Covent  Garden 
or  to  rest  in  their  old  homes.  With  the  outbreak  of  hos- 
tilities it  became  nscessary  to  look  after  these  people — 
artists,  choristers,  and  instrumentalists — and  make  sure  of 
their  return  to  New  York.  All  of  them  were  not  essential 
to  the  season,  but  Mr.  Albert  Reiss  occupied  so  unique  a 
position  in  the  artistic  economy  of  the  institution  that  the 
help  of  the  French  Ambassador  to  the  United  States  had 
to  be  invoked  to  rescue  him  from  a  concentration  camp  in 
France.  Mr.  Dinh  Gilly,  a  valuable  but  less  necessary  mem- 
ber of  the  French  and  Italian  contingent,  became  a  prisoner 
of  war  in  Austria  and  had  to  be  left  to  his  fate.  As  for  the 
rest  the  roster  was  complete  when  the  prospectus  was  issued 
on  October  19.  It  contained,  in  its  German  contingent,  the 
names  of  Emmy  Destinn,  Johanna  Gadski,  Frieda  Hempel, 
Melanie  Kurt  (a  newcomer),  Margaret  Matzenauer,  Mar- 
garet Ober,  Rudolf  Berger,  Johannes  Sembach  (a  new 
tenor),  Jacques  Urlus,  Otto  Goritz,  Robert  Leonhardt,  Carl 
Schlegel,  Hermann  Weil,  and  Carl  Braun. 

In  the  season,  which  was  as  like  its  predecessor  as  two 
peas  are  like  each  other,  except  in  the  size  of  the  artistic 
pod,  there  being  neither  addition  nor  diminution  of  the  Ger- 
man list  of  operas  performed,  the  war  affected  the  financial 
outcome  in  a  twofold  manner.  The  subscriptions  fell  off 
(for  no  reason  except  apprehension  of  a  possible  financial 
depression,  a  fear  which  led  to  the  abandonment  of  the  Bos- 
ton Opera  Company,  which  had  been  a  losing  institution 
from  the  beginning,  and  the  bankruptcy  at  the  end  of  the 


FIRST  EFFECTS  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  333 

Chicago  Company,  which,  however,  was  reorganized  for  the 
following  season)  and  there  was  a  loss  of  expected  revenues 
from  the  failure  of  the  promised  affiliation  with  the  organi- 
zations in  Boston  and  Chicago.  No  effort  had  been  made  to 
conceal  from  the  public  the  fact  that  the  demands  of  a  few 
of  the  principal  singers  of  the  Metropolitan  Company  had 
become  exorbitant,  partly  because  of  the  end  of  the  Ham- 
merstein  competition,  partly  because  of  it,  and  that  the  only 
means  which  offered  to  satisfy  them  was  to  share  their 
services  with  Boston  and  Chicago.  With  no  opera  in  the 
capitals  of  New  England  and  the  Middle  West,  and  the 
concert  season  ruined  by  popular  apathy  and  an  invasion  of 
foreign  artists,  an  unexpectedly  large  burden  fell  upon  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  Company.  How  large  a  loss  was  en- 
tailed I  do  not  know,  but  the  directors,  while  withholding 
figures  in  accordance  with  their  invariable  custom,  let  it  be 
known  that  the  loss  was  not  so  large  as  that  of  1910-11. 

About  the  middle  of  the  season  Mr.  Gatti  made  it  known 
that  the  war  had  brought  with  it  what  seemed  to  him  the 
psychological  moment  for  a  reform  which  should  look 
toward  the  emancipation  of  the  institution  from  the  exorbi- 
tant demands  of  the  singers.  What  he  did  in  the  way  of 
retrenchment  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  say,  nor  have  I  ever 
been  curious  to  find  out ;  I  prefer  to  confine  myself  to  the 
artistic  doings  of  the  institutions.  A  great  deal  of  gossip 
was  created  by  the  fact  that  it  was  announced  early  in  Janu- 
ary that  Signer  Caruso  would  cut  his  season  short  in  order 
to  sing  at  Monte  Carlo.  It  was,  of  course,  at  once  concluded 
that  the  admired  tenor  had  rebelled  against  an  attempt  to 
reduce  his  honorarium,  notwithstanding  the  statement  of 
the  directors  that  he  was  worth  to  them  every  cent  of  the 
$2,500  a  night  which  he  was  receiving,  and  that  the  pro- 
jected measure  of  reform  was  not  aimed  at  him.  In  the  last 
week  of  the  season  the  directors  issued  a  statement  to  the 
effect  that  Signer  Caruso  would  be  a  member  of  the  com- 
pany in  the  entire  season  of  1915-1916,  which  compelled  the 


334  MISS  FARRAR'S  PROFESSIONS 

conclusion  that  the  curtailment 'of  his  engagement  had  been 
an  amicable  arrangement.  Miss  Geraldine  Farrar,  another 
popular  idol,  without  waiting  to  learn  the  intentions  of  the 
directors  concerning  her,  executed  a  strategic  movement 
and  placed  herself  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Charles  A.  Ellis,  of 
Boston,  who  had  been  her  agent  for  concerts.  It  was  a 
shrewd  move,  but  Miss  Farrar  evidently  thought  it  needed 
defense,  for  she  put  forth  some  high-sounding  phrases 
about  her  art  as  a  vocation  and  the  necessity  of  laying  up 
money  against  an  evil  day.  This,  she  intimated,  would  not 
be  necessary  "  if  we  had  a  government  opera  house,  with 
the  artists  cared  for  during  their  active  careers.  With  a 
pension  at  the  close  they  would  not  have  to  haggle  over 
money;  all  that  they  would  be  required  to  do  would  be  to 
perfect  their  art."  This  sounded  well,  but  would  have  been 
a  trifle  more  convincing  if  Miss  Farrar  had  not  deserted 
the  Royal  Opera  at  Berlin,  where  she  might  at  the  last  have 
obtained  a  pension,  and  contracted  with  Mr.  Conried  to 
come  to  America.  Also  if  she  had  not  in  an  interview  sent 
to  the  New  York  Times  disclosed  anything  but  a  patriotic 
spirit  toward  her  native  land.  To  what  measure  of  suc- 
cess Miss  Farrar  carried  her  point  I  do  not  know.  She 
did,  however,  make  a  contract  with  the  reorganized  Chicago 
Opera  Company  for  a  portion  of  the  next  season  and  with 
the  Metropolitan  director  for  the  remainder. 

Artistically,  as  I  have  said,  the  first  season  after  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  was  like  its  predecessor  and  also  like  its 
successors.  The  old  list  of  German  operas  was  retained. 
In  the  susbscription  list  there  were  12  German  operas  which 
received  42  performances ;  in  the  entire  list  of  performances 
the  same  operas  received  53  performances.  German  operas 
were  then  relied  on  for  special  series  and  holidays  when 
the  general  public,  not  the  subscribers,  had  to  be  attracted. 

There  was  the  conventional  complement  of  23  weeks  in 
the  season  of  1914-15  which  had  become  the  rule  at  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House — from  November  14  to  April 


BURDENSOME  LABORS  OF  THE  COMPANY         335 

24,  inclusive.  Within  this  period  of  160  days  the  company 
gave  178  evenings  and  afternoons  of  opera,  besides  23  con- 
certs on  Sunday  nights,  including  the  performances  which 
had  also  become  the  rule  in  Philadelphia  and  Brooklyn. 
Think  of  the  time  passed  in  shunting  back  and  forth  be- 
tween the  cities,  the  hours  spent  in  rehearsals,  and  reflect 
upon  how  many  hours  the  slaves  of  the  opera  were  per- 
mitted to  have  for  fest,  reflection,  and  recuperation !  Such 
statistics  do  not  concern  me  beyond  exciting  my  sympathy 
and  regret  over  the  inevitable  effect  which  the  onerous 
labors  have  upon  the  artistic  performances  which  I  have 
made  it  my  duty  to  chronicle.  In  passing,  however,  it  may 
not  be  amiss  to  express  a  feeling  of  amazement  that  Mr. 
Gatti's  harmonious  forces  should  have  accomplished  so  stu- 
pendous a  labor,  and  of  regret  that  operatic  conditions  in 
New  York  should  have  so  shaped  themselves  as  to  seem  to 
make  the  labor  necessary.  This  necessity  was  responsible 
for  all  the  shortcomings  of  the  season,  which  I  am  compelled 
to  overlook,  because  this  is  not  a  critical  account  of  the  rep- 
resentations, and  which  was  tempered  by  admiration  for  the 
zeal  which  Mr.  Gatti's  people  disclosed  and  the  operation  of 
the  system  which  Mr.  Gatti's  generalship  kept  alive. 

In  the  previous  season  Mr.  Gatti  had  done  an  unprece- 
dented thing  in  producing  five  new  works.  He  did  not 
attempt  to  do  so  much  in  the  season  under  review,  and  even 
failed  in  part  in  what  he  did  undertake.  The  prospectus 
had  promised  three  novelties  and  seven  so-called  "  revivals." 
The  novelties  were  Giordano's  "  Madame  Sans-Gene," 
Borodin's  "  Prince  Igor,"  and  Leoni's  "  L'Oracolo."  The 
old  works  which  were  to  be  revamped  were  "  Carmen " 
(with  Miss  Farrar),  "  Fidelio,"  "  Mefistofele,"  "  Guillaume 
Tell,"  "Samson  et  Dalila,"  and  Weber's  "  Euryanthe." 
"  Madame  Sans-Gene  "  was  given  and  had  as  large  a  num- 
ber of  performances  as  the  director's  plans  made  possible, 
but  it  failed  to  create  a  large  interest  and  the  composer  did 
not  come  to  attend  the  "  world  premiere,"  as  it  had  been 


336  NOVELTIES  PROMISED  AND  GIVEN 

announced  that  he  would.  "  L'Oracolo  "  was  brought  for- 
ward as  a  curtain-raiser  to  "  Pagliacci,"  which  Signer  Ca- 
ruso has  kept  in  the  repertory.  Borodin's  Russian  opera, 
for  which  a  warm  welcome  had  been  prepared  by  "  Boris 
Godounow,"  was  abandoned  because  the  chorus  had  not  the 
time  to  learn  the  music.  Small  wonder.  Mascagni's  "  Iris  " 
was  thrust  into  the  place  of  the  promised  novelty.  Other 
incidents  of  the  season  were  the  death  of  one  of  the  Ger- 
man tenors,  Rudolf  Berger,  on  February  27 ;  the  announce- 
ment that  Alfred  Hertz,  the  German  conductor,  would  retire 
from  the  establishment  at  the  expiration  of  his  contract  for 
the  year;  and  the  nervous  breakdown,  a  fortnight  before 
the  end  of  the  season,  of  Signor  Toscanini,  which  compelled 
the  abandonment  of  two  symphony  concerts  which  he  had 
prepared  to  add  to  the  establishment's  laurels.  Unhappily, 
he  did  not  return  for  the  next  season.  It  is  also  deserving 
of  notice  that  in  this  season  "  Parsifal  "  was  for  the  first 
time  admitted  to  the  regular  list,  though  it  had  been  in  the 
repertory  of  the  Metropolitan  for  eleven  years. 

The  occasion  of  the  first  performance  of  "  Madame  Sans- 
Gene  "  on  January  25,  1915,  was  of  considerable  moment, 
but  the  fact  would  have  been  recorded  in  these  memoirs  even 
if  this  had  not  been  the  case.  The  conductor  was  Signor 
Toscanini  and  the  singers  were  these : 

Caterina  Huebscher  Geraldine  Farrar 

Tonietta Leonora  Sparkes 

Giulia   Rita  Fornia 

La  Rossa  Sophie  Braslau 

Lefebvre  Giovanni  Martinelli 

Fouche  Andrea  de  Segurola 

Vinagre Max  Bloch 

Conte  di  Neipperg  Paul  Althouse 

La  Regina  Carolina  Vera  Curtis 

La  Principessa  Elisa  Minnie  Egener 

Despreaux  Angelo  Bada 

Gelsomino  Riccardo  Tegani 

Leroy   Robert  Leonhardt 

De  Brigode Vincenzo  Reschiglian 

Napoleone    Pasquale  Amato 

Roustan  .  Bernard  Begue 


"  MADAME  SANS-GENE  "  337 

Operatic  conditions  were  not  normal  in  Europe,  but  that 
fact  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  choice  of  New  York  as  the 
place  in  which  Umberto  Giordano's  opera  was  to  have  its 
first  representation.  It  would  have  seen  its  material  birth 
here,  even  if  a  war,  begun  to  promote  Teutonic  notions  of 
civilization,  had  not  intervened  to  put  a  clog  on  artistic 
culture  in  Europe.  The  only  effect  of  the  crime  committed 
against  culture  in  the  name  of  Kultur  was  to  keep  the  com- 
poser away  from  the  first  representation  of  his  work;  and 
that  circumstance  was  entirely  inconsequential.  The  pres- 
ence of  Signor  Giordano  might  have  quickened  the  pulses 
of  the  people  who  heard  his  opera ;  it  could  not  have  helped 
the  work,  which  had  as  admirable  a  performance  as  could 
well  be  desired,  and  which  could  certainly  not  have  been 
better  had  the  scene  of  the  premiere  been  laid  in  Milan, 
London,  Paris,  St.  Petersburg,  Berlin,  or  Vienna.  "  Madame 
Sans-Gene  "  is  an  operatic  version  of  the  drama  which  Sar- 
dou  developed  out  of  a  little  one-act  play  dealing  with  a 
partly  fictitious,  partly  historical  story  of  which  Napoleon, 
his  marshal  Lefebvre,  and  a  laundress  were  the  characters. 
Whether  or  not  the  great  Corsican  could  be  justified  as  a 
figure  in  a  lyric  drama  was  a  moot  question  when  Giordano 
conceived  the  idea  of  making  an  opera  out  of  the  play.  It 
is  said  that  Verdi  remarked  something  to  the  effect  that  the 
question  turned  on  what  he  was  called  upon  to  sing  and 
how  he  would  be  expected  to  sing  it.  In  the  palmy  days  of 
bel  canto  no  one  would  have  raised  such  a  question,  as  I 
have  set  forth  in  an  earlier  work  already  cited.* 

In  turning  Sardou's  dramatic  people  into  operatic  marion- 
ettes a  great  deal  of  bloodletting  was  necessary  and  a  great 
deal  of  its  characteristic  charm  was  lost,  especially  in  the 
cases  of  Mme.  Sans-Gene  herself  and  the  Emperor's  sister, 
but  enough  was  left  to  make  a  practicable  opera ;  and  what 
more  could  be  asked  ? 

* "  A  Second  Book  of  Operas."  By  Henry  Edward  Krehbiel. 
New  York,  1917. 


338       THE  OPERA  AND  SARDOU'S  PLAY 

There  were  the  pictures  of  all  the  plebeians  who  became 
great  folk  later  concerned  in  the  historical  incidents  which 
lifted  them  up.  There  were  also  the  contrasting  pictures 
which  resulted  from  the  great  transformation,  and  there 
was  also  the  ingratiating  incident  of  the  devotion  of  Lefeb- 
vre  to  the  stout-hearted,  honest  little  woman  of  the  people 
who  had  to  try  to  be  a  duchess.  All  this  was  fair  operatic 
material,  for  music  has  a  strange  capacity  for  purifying 
stage  characters. 

Giordano  could  not  do  himself  justice  as  a  composer  with- 
out refining  the  expression  of  Caterina  Huebscher,  and  so 
his  Duchess*  of  Danzig  talks  a  musical  language,  at  least, 
which  Sardou's  washerwoman  could  not  talk  and  remain 
within  the  dramatic  verities.  Therefore  we  had  "  Madame 
Sans-Gene  "  with  a  difference,  but  not  one  that  gave  any 
more  offense  than  operatic  treatment  of  other  fine  plays  had 
accustomed  us  to. 

French  revolutionary  airs  peppered  the  pages  of  "  Ma- 
dame Sans-Gene  " — the  same  airs  which  had  given  fierce  life 
to  the  same  composer's  "  Andrea  Chenier."  Quite  natural, 
this,  for  the  two  operas  are  allied  in  subject  and  period  as 
well  as  in  style  of  composition.  Chenier  goes  to  his  death 
to  the  tune  of  "  La  Marseillaise  "  and  the  mob  marches  past 
the  windows  of  Caterina  Huebscher's  laundry  singing  the 
refrain  of  Roget  de  Lisle's  hymn.  But  Giordano  does  not 
make  extensive  use  of  the  national  hymn  of  France ;  it 
appears  literally  at  the  place  mentioned  and  surges  up  with 
fine  effect  in  a  speech  in  which  the  Countess  of  Danzig 
overwhelms  the  proud  sisters  of  Bonaparte.  Practially  that 
is  all.  The  case  is  different  with  the  two  other  revolu- 
tionary songs.  Their  melodies  are  not  so  widely  known  in 
America  now  as  they  were  a  century  and  a  quarter  ago,  and 
so  they  are  reproduced  here  as  a  sort  of  thematic  guide  to 
many  pages  of  Giordano's  score.  The  first  crash  of  the 
orchestra  launches  us  into  "  La  Carmagnole." 


LA  CARMAGNOLE"  339 


\>    '  I     *    '       V 

De      f*lre    t  .  for  .  gtr    tout   Pan*      D« 


<»lri.  (     (or         j.r    tout     P«       rU,      Mill 


-^~~t T      P     *     p     '" — *— *— t  ^    ^  ! 

««e,    Orice     >      not     c4  .  too     nltri         Dio.«o»    U    C> 


* 


-p    p     ,1   !»•   *-d    j't  J.      '«•!--      | 
VI.  it     if    too,  vt.vc   le    loo,        D»n     iqn»  U    Cir. 


This  melody  provides  the  thematic  orchestral  substratum 
for  practically  the  entire  first  scene.  It  is  an  innocent 
enough  tune,  differing  little  from  hundreds  of  French  vaude- 
ville melodies,  but  Giordano  injects  vitriol  into  its  veins  by 
his  harmonies  and  orchestration.  With  all  its  innocency, 
however,  it  was  this  tune  which  came  from  the  raucous 
throats  of  politically  crazed  men  and  women,  while  noble 
heads  tumbled  into  the  bloody  sawdust,  while  the  spoils  of 
the  churches  were  carried  into  the  National  Convention  in 
1793,  and  to  which  "  several  members,  quitting  their  curule 
chairs,  took  the  hands  of  girls  flaunting  in  priests'  vestures," 
danced  a  wild  rout,  as  did  other  mad  wretches  when  a 
dancer  was  worshiped  as  the  Goddess  of  Reason  in  the 
Cathedral  of  Notre  Dame. 

Caterina's  account  of  the  rude  familiarity  with  which  she 
is  treated  by  the  soldiery  (a  knowledge  of  the  story  of  the 
opera  can  safely  be  assumed,  since  Sardou's  play  has  been 
acted  here  by  Kathryn  Kidder,  as  well  as  Mme.  Rejane)  is 
set  to  a  melody  of  a  Russian  folksong  cast,  in  the  treatment 
of  which  Russian  influences  may  also  be  felt,  but  with  the 
first  shouts  of  the  mob  attacking  the  Tuileries  in  the  dis- 
tance the  characteristic  rhythmical  motif  of  "  (^a  ira  "  is 
heard  muttering  in  the  basses : 


340 


Again  a  harmless  tune  which  in  its  time  was  perverted  to 
a  horrible  use — a  lively  little  contra-dance  which  graced 
many  a  cotillon  in  its  early  day,  but  which  was  roared  and 
shouted  by  the  mob  as  it  carried  the  beauteous  head  of  the 
Lamballe  through  the  streets  of  Paris  on  a  pike  and  thrust 
it  almost  into  the  face  of  Marie  Antoinette ! 

Of  such  material  and  a  pretty  little  dance  ("  La  Fricas- 
see "),  to  which  Caterina  tells  of  her  rescue  by  Lefebvre,  is 
the  music  of  the  first  act,  punctuated  by  cannon  shots,  made. 
It  is  all  rhythmically  stirring,  it  flows  spiritedly,  energetic- 
ally, along  with  the  movement  of  the  play,  never  retarding 
it  for  a  moment,  but,  unhappily,  never  sweetening  it  with  a 
grain  of  pretty  sentiment  or  adorning  it  with  a  really  grace- 
ful contour.  And  so  with  the  acts  which  follow  the  revo- 
lutionary scenes.  There  is  some  graciousness  in  the  court 
scene,  some  archness  and  humor  in  the  scene  in  which  the 
plebeian  Duchess  of  Danzig  permits  the  adornment  of  her 
person,  some  dramatically  strong  declamation  in  the  speeches 
of  Napoleon,  some  simulation  of  passion  in  the  love  passages 
of  Lefebvre  and  of  Reipperg;  but  as  a  rule  the  melodic 
flood  never  reaches  high  tide. 

Mr.  Antonio  Scotti's  popularity  and  his  success  in  im- 


A  CHINESE-AMERICAN  OPERA  34* 

personating  the  principal  character  in  the  opera  brought 
sporadic  performances  of  "  L'Oracolo  "  until  the  end  of 
the  period  with  which  this  book  deals.  Besides  this  artist's 
popularity,  the  opera  had  in  its  favor  the  fact  that  it  was  a 
lyric  version  of  an  American  play  with  local  color  in  its 
story,  though  not  in  its  music.  It  was  drawn  from  a  play 
of  life  in  the  Chinese  quarter  of  San  Francisco.  The  play 
was  C.  B.  Fernald's  "  The  Cat  and  the  Cherub,"  which  had 
been  one  of  the  features  of  the  theatrical  season  of  1897-98. 
From  New  York  it  found  its  way  in  the  course  of  the  same 
season  to  London,  and  there  the  Italian  librettist,  Camillo 
Zanoni,  and  the  Italian  composer,  Franco  Leoni,  turned  it 
into  an  opera  which  was  performed  a  few  times  at  Covent 
Garden  in  June,  1905,  with  Miss  Donaldo,  Mr.  Scotti,  and 
Mr.  Dalmores  in  the  cast.  At  the  New  York  first  perform- 
ance, February  4,  1915,  it  was  sung  by  these  people : 

Win-Shee  Adamo  Didur 

Chim-Fen  Antonio  Scotti 

Hoo-Tsin   Giulio  Rossi 

Win-San-Luy  Luca  Botta 

Hoo-Chee Ella  Bakos 

Ah-Yoe  Lucrezia  Bori 

Hua-Quee  Sophie  Braslau 

A  Fortune  Teller  Pietro  Audisio 

Conductor,  Giorgio  Polacco 

There  had  been  an  effort  made  at  local  color  in  the  inci- 
dental music  written  for  the  play  (for  the  composer  was 
familiar  with  the  life  of  the  Chinese  dwellers  in  San  Fran- 
cisco), but  Mr.  Leoni  evidently  knew  too  little  of  the  life  of 
the  people  represented  in  the  play  to  attempt  anything  of 
the  sort.  He  tried  at  times  to  be  Oriental  in  expression, 
especially  in  the  ceremonial  parts  of  the  play,  but  the  Orien- 
talism was  more  like  that  of  Meyerbeer's  singular  Malagasy 
music  in  "  L'Af ricaine  "  than  anything  ever  heard  in  China 
or  carried  thence  to  San  Francisco.  In  all  else  the  score  was 
fair  Puccini  and  deftly  sugared  water. 


342  REVIVAL  OF  "  EURYANTHE  " 

Weber's  opera  "  Euryanthe  "  was  brought  forward  at  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House  at  an  afternoon  performance  on 
December  19,  1914.  It  was  twenty-seven  years,  almost  to  a 
day,  since  it  had  had  its  first  hearing  at  the  proud  establish- 
ment. When  Anton  Seidl  put  it  into  the  repertory  on  De- 
cember 23,  1887,  twenty-four  years  had  elapsed  since  it  had 
been  heard  for  the  first  time  in  New  York,  that  hearing  hav- 
ing been  provided  by  a  company  of  German  singers  who 
had  ventured  upon  a  season  of  opera  under  the  direction  of 
Carl  Anschiitz  at  Wallack's  Theater,  located  then  at  Broad- 
way and  Broome  Street.  WThen  Mr.  Seidl  tried  to  give  the 
opera  a  home  in  New  York  I  expressed  the  conviction  in 
The  Tribune  newspaper  that  it  had  been  a  kind  providence 
which  had  preserved  the  work  from  representation  in  the 
interim.  On  this  second  resurrection  the  thought  came 
again.  Then  the  reason  was  that  the  generation  of  opera 
patrons  that  had  grown  up  between  the  tentative  efforts  of 
Herr  Anschiitz  and  his  artistic  pioneers  could  not  be  pre- 
pared for  Weber's  startling  proclamation  because  they  knew 
too  little  of  Wagner's  art.  Now  the  thought  which  in- 
fluenced the  reviewer  was  that  since  the  passing  of  Seidl 
there  had  been  no  conductor  at  the  Metropolitan  sufficiently 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  Weber's  music  to  body  it  forth  so 
that  its  gracious  loveliness,  its  chivalresqueness,  its  tragic 
power  would  make  the  irresistible  appeal  which  lies  in  that 
music  to  popular  appreciation  and  affection.  That  con- 
ductor was  found  in  Signor  Toscanini,  who  had  performed 
his  most  amazing  miracles  not  in  the  operas  of  his  country- 
men, but  in  the  dramas  of  Wagner. 

A  year  before,  when  the  first  intimations  were  whispered 
about  the  opera  house  that  Signor  Toscanini  contemplated  a 
revival  of  the  opera,  it  was  explained  that  his  reason,  out- 
side of  his  admiration  for  Weber's  score,  was  that  he  wished 
to  supply  the  missing  link  between  operas  of  the  old  type 
and  Wagner's  lyric  dramas  and  knew  that  "  Euryanthe  " 
was  that  link.  If  he  really  had  such  a  laudable  purpose  he 


WEBER  AS  WAGNER'S  PROTOTYPE  343 

must  have  been  gratified  at  the  popular  reception  of  the 
opera.  The  whisperings  and  elbow-nudgings  in  boxes  and 
stalls,  the  excited  between-acts  gossip  in  the  corridors,  all 
indicated  that  an  audience  that  knew  Wagner  from  "  Tann- 
hauser  "  to  "  Parsifal "  had  been  fully  aroused  to  a  con- 
sciousness that  from  first  to  last  Wagner  patterned  after 
the  composer  who  had  awakened  his  musical  genius  into  life 
as  a  schoolboy.  They  found  that  "  Euryanthe,"  like  "  Ham- 
let," was  "  full  of  quotations,"  and  no  doubt  many  discrimi- 
nating minds  discovered  that  Lysiart  was  a  more  powerful 
vessel  of  wrath  than  Telramund,  Eglantine  a  more  potent 
personification  of  malicious  wickedness  than  Ortrud,  and 
Euryanthe  a  more  fragrant  flower  of  chastity  than  Elsa. 
Weber  set  out  on  a  new  path  when  he  composed  "  Euryan- 
the " — a  path  more  absolutely  novel  and  revolutionary  than 
Wagner  had  chosen  up  to  the  time  when  he  achieved  his 
first  popular  successes,  and  a  path  which  he  kept  in  view 
until  he  brought  his  revolutionary  labors  to  an  end.  He  had 
scarcely  hinted  at  it  in  "  Der  Freischiitz  "  and  he  did  not 
pursue  it  in  "  Oberon."  There  is  no  clearer  or  more  truth- 
ful definition  of  "  Euryanthe  "  than  that  which  has  come  to 
us  from  Weber  himself.  It  is  "  a  simple,  earnest  work 
which  strives  for  nothing  save  truthfulness  of  expression, 
passion,  and  delineation  of  character."  The  words  of  the 
composer  are  only  slightly  expanded  and  emphasized  by  a 
memorable  reply  which  he  made  when  applied  to  by  a  society 
in  Breslau  for  permission  to  perform  the  work  in  concert 
form :  "  '  Euryanthe  '  is  a  purely  dramatic  attempt  which 
rests  for  its  effectiveness  upon  a  co-operation  of  all  the  sister 
arts,  and  will  surely  fail  if  robbed  of  their  help." 

Romaine  Rolland,  in  his  collection  of  criticisms,  has  given 
expression  to  the  belief  that,  on  the  whole,  the  enjoyment  of 
Wagner's  Nibelung  music  is  marred  by  the  stage  spectacle. 
I  can  not  subscribe  to  that  notion  even  when  witnessing  the 
faulty  representations  which  are  becoming  too  common, 
owing  to  the  ignorance  or  careless  attitude  of  stage-man- 


344  THE  CHARMS  OF  WEBER'S  OPERA 

agers  and  artists ;  and  the  soundness  of  Weber's  view  is  to 
be  commended  even  in  the  face  of  the  absurdities  of  the 
libretto  which  the  foolish  bluestocking  von  Chezy  forced 
upon  him.  His  attitude  toward  his  idiotically  constructed 
book  was  sincere  at  least — even  down  to  the  episode  of  the 
serpent  which  nowadays  defeats  itself  and  evokes  laughter 
instead  of  awe.  But  it  is  only  a  ripple,  a  momentary  eddy 
in  the  stream  of  tragic  sentiment  provided  by  the  music. 
We  are  quite  as  ready  to  smile  at  Weber's  serpent  as  at 
Mozart's  monster  and  Wagner's  dragon ;  but  the  music  soon 
carries  us  away  from  the  danger  which  seems  to  threaten 
the  drama. 

It  is  the  lovely  manner  and  perfection  with  which  Weber 
has  wedded  the  drama  and  the  music  which  makes  "  Eury- 
anthe  "  an  almost  ineffable  work.  There  is  no  groping  in 
the  dark  such  as  might  have  been  expected  from  a  path- 
finder. Weber  was  showing  the  way  to  thitherto  undreamed- 
of possibilities,  yet  his  hand  was  steady,  his  judgment  all 
but  unerring.  How  continent  his  orchestra !  Yet  what  an 
eloquence  and  power  does  it  contain  as  an  expositor  of  the 
innermost  heart  of  the  drama!  Is  there  another  page  in 
operatic  literature  to  be  put  alongside  of  the  Largo  episode 
in  the  overture  and  its  repeated  recurrence  when  the  spec- 
tral visitant  who  haunts  the  minds  of  the  personages  and 
ruins  the  fabric  of  the  play  makes  its  appearance?  Has 
Wagner  improved  the  introduction  to  the  third  act  by  his 
palpable  imitations  of  it  in  "  Siegfried  "  and  "  Tristan  "  ? 
Is  there  another  operatic  song  of  the  dewy  freshness  and 
fragrance  of  Euryanthe's  first  cavatina  ("  Glocklein  im 
Thale  ")  or  the  sweet,  gentle,  resigned  pathos  of  the  second 
("Hier,  dicht  am  Quell'")  in  the  last  act?  Did  not  the 
hunt's-up  of  the  last  act  provoke  something  like  a  feeling 
of  impatience  with  Wagner's  imitation  in  "  Tannhauser  "  ? 
Will  it  ever  be  possible  to  put  loftier  sentiment  or  sincerer 
expression  into  a  delineation  of  brave  knighthood  and  its 
homage  to  fair  women  than  inspire  almost  every  measure 


A.MEUTA   (  i.U.LI-CuKCI 
Of  the  Chicago  Opera  Company 


DEPARTURE  OF  ALFRED  HERTZ        345 

of  the  first  act?  To  Wagner's  honor  be  it  said  that  he 
never  denied  his  indebtedness  to  Weber,  but  if  he  had  it 
would  have  availed  him  nothing  while  the  representatives 
of  the  evil  principle  in  "  Lohengrin  "  and  "  Euryanthe  " 
present  so  obvious  a  parallel,  not  to  mention  so  many  drafts 
upon  the  spiritual  as  well  as  physical  apparatus  in  so  many 
parts  of  the  score.  The  opera  was  presented  as  a  brilliant 
spectacle  in  which  pictures  and  pageantry  were  successfully 
and  harmoniously  blended.  The  tableau  which  Weber  in- 
tended to  have  exposed  during  the  Largo  episode  in  the 
overture  was  omitted.  We  had  had  it  in  the  performances 
twenty-seven  years  before,  but  it  can  not  be  said  to  shed 
much  light  on  the  play,  since  its  significance  becomes  appar- 
ent only  after  the  drama  is  developed  and  then  only  in  part 
and  to  those  who  are  willing  to  endure  the  brain-racking 
which  the  incoherent  libretto  compels.  But  we  had  the  Pas 
de  cinque  in  the  last  act,  composed  for  Berlin,  for  which 
Mr.  Seidl  had  substituted  the  waltz  measures  from  "  The 
Invitation  to  the  Dance."  The  parts  in  the  opera  were  dis- 
tributed as  follows: 

The  King  Arthur  Middleton 

Adolar  , Johannes  Sembach 

Lysiart   Hermann  Weil 

Euryanthe   Frieda  Hempel 

Eglantine   Margarete  Ober 

Rudolph  Max  Bloch 

Bertha    Mabel   Harrison 

The  afternoon  performance  of  the  season  brought  an  end 
to  the  services  of  Mr.  Alfred  Hertz  as  conductor  of  the 
German  operas  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House.  He  had 
been  an  efficient  and  faithful  (may  I  say,  also  somewhat 
heavy-handed)  official  at  that  establishment  for  thirteen 
years,  had  made  many  friends  among  the  contingent  of 
artists  and  patrons  of  the  establishment,  and  his  departure 
was  celebrated,  or  solemnized,  with  appropriate  manifesta- 
tions of  esteem.  From  the  German  contingent  of  the  com- 


346  THE  GERMAN  CONDUCTOR'S  CAREER 

pany  Mr.  Hertz  received  a  magnificent  laurel-wreath 
wrought  in  gold,  and  silver,  from  the  directors  of  the 
company  a  massive  loving-cup.  Mr.  Hertz's  services  at 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  began  in  the  last  year  of 
Mr.  Grau's  management.  Before  he  came  to  New  York 
he,  a  native  of  Frankfort,  Germany,  had  received  his 
musical  education  at  the  Raff  Conservatorium  in  that  city, 
had  been  conductor  for  three  years  at  the  Hoftheater  in 
Altenburg,  Barmen,  Elberfeld,  and  Breslau.  He  began  his 
career  in  New  York  on  November  28,  1892.  His  associates 
in  New  York  in  his  first  season  were  Signer  Mancinelli  and 
M.  Flon,  respectively  in  charge  of  the  Italian  and  French 
lists.  With  the  exception  of  a  single  work  all  of  the  Ger- 
man operas  when  Mr.  Hertz  came  belonged  to  the  Wag- 
nerian  list  firmly  established  in  popular  favor,  but  that 
exception  brought  Mr.  Hertz  into  popular  notice  more 
emphatically  than  any  operatic  incident  in  the  annals  of 
German  opera  in  America.  In  his  first  season  he  con- 
ducted the  first  performance  outside  Bayreuth  of  "  Parsi- 
fal," and  every  performance  which  that  work  received  at 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  until  his  departure  from 
New  York.  After  that  departure  he  made  his  home  on 
the  Pacific  coast.  "His  monopoly  of  the  German  list  ceased 
when  Mr.  Conried's  regime  began  in  the  autumn  of  1903. 
Mr.  Conried  engaged  Herr  Mottl,  who  conducted  the 
greater  part  of  the  list,  leaving  only  "  Tristan,"  "  Parsifal," 
"  Rheingold,"  and  "  Gotterdammerung "  to  his  associate. 
This  being  the  year  in  which  "  Parsifal "  had  eleven  repre- 
sentations, however,  Mr.  Hertz  enjoyed  a  larger  share  of 
public  attention  than  his  more  famous  colleague. 

The  fifth  year  of  his  activity  was  marked  by  the  frus- 
tration of  Mr.  Conried's  attempt  to  place  Richard  Strauss's 
"  Salome  "  by  the  side  of  Wagner's  "  Parsifal."  Mr.  Hertz 
prepared  the  unsavory  opera  and  conducted  the  one  repre- 
sentation which  the  directors  permitted  for  Mr.  Conried's 
benefit.  Throughout  the  season  of  1907-08,  the  last  of  Mr. 


DIVISION  OF  THE  GERMAN  REPERTORY  347 

Conried's  regime,  Mr.  Hertz  shared  the  German  list  with 
Herr  Mahler,  who  was  brought  over  as  German  director 
from  Vienna.  He  began  his  labors  on  January  i,  1908, 
and  to  him  were  assigned  "  Die  Walkiire,"  "  Tristan  und 
Isolde,"  "  Siegfried,"  and  "  Fidelio."  The  Wagnerian  list 
was  extended  by  the  inclusion  of  "  Der  Fliegende  Hol- 
lander," which  Mr.  Hertz  conducted,  as  well  as  "  Das 
Rheingold,"  "  Gotterdammerung,"  and  "  Meistersinger." 

With  the  advent  of  Signor  Gatti-Casazza  and  Mr.  Dippel 
in  the  management,  the  German  field  was  shared  by  three 
conductors.  Signor  Toscanini's  sympathies  were  not  cir- 
cumscribed by  the  Italian  list.  He  had  produced  "  Gotter- 
dammerung "  at  La  Scala  in  Milan,  and  leaving  the  old- 
fashioned  Italian  operas  to  his  compatriot,  Spetrino,  he  took 
charge  of  the  final  drama  in  the  Nibelung  tetralogy  here, 
though  it  was  again  placed  in  Mr.  Hertz's  hands  at  the 
special  serial  performances. 

Mr.  Mahler  took  over  "  Tristan  und  Isolde  "  and  "  Fi- 
delio," and  Mr.  Hertz  was  left  with  "Walkiire,"  "Sieg- 
fried," "  Parsifal,"  "  Tannhauser,"  and  "  Meistersinger." 
The  German  novelties  of  the  season  were  d'Albert's  "  Tief- 
land,"  conducted  by  Hertz,  and  "  The  Bartered  Bride,"  con- 
ducted by  Mahler. 

In  1910-11  the  entire  Wagnerian  list  (save  "Tristan" 
and  "Die  Meistersinger"  yielded  to  Mr.  Toscanini)  re- 
verted to  Mr.  Hertz,  who  also  took  over  "  The  Bartered 
Bride,"  and  gave  Humperdinck's  "  Konigskinder  "  its  world 
premiere  under  the  eyes  of  the  composer.  Thuille's  "  Lo- 
betanz,"  Blech's  "  Versiegelt,"  and  Professor  Parker's  prize 
opera  "  Mona  "  were  Mr.  Hertz's  contributions  to  the  sea- 
son of  1911-12,  and  Walter  Damrosch's  "Cyrano  de 
Bergerac  "  to  the  season  of  1912-13.  The  last  novelty  which 
he  brought  forward  was  the  opera  with  which  he  ended 
his  local  service,  "  Der  Rosenkavalier."  In  all,  Mr.  Hertz 
conducted  twenty-seven  operas  during  his  term  at  the 
Metropolitan,  of  which  eleven  were  novelties. 


348  THE  OPERA  LOSES  SIGNOR  TOSCANINI 

I  have  given  much  space  to  the  incident  of  Mr.  Hertz's 
departure  from  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  largely  be- 
cause of  his  long  association  with  it  and  his  identification 
with  its  most  progressive  activities.  A  greater  loss  was  suf- 
fered by  the  establishment  when  Signer  Toscanini  did  not 
return  for  the  season  of  1915-16.  I  coupled  an  anticipatory 
expression  of  the  extent  of  that  loss  with  an  estimate  of  his 
genius  in  Chapter  III  of  this  book.  Various  explanations 
were  offered  for  his  non-appearance  in  the  autumn  of  1915, 
among  them  the  state  of  his  health  at  the  end  of  the  preced- 
ing season  nnd  his  desire  to  do  service  for  his  country  in  the 
artistic  field  after  Italy  had  become  embroiled  in  the  war 
with  Germany  and  Austria.  His  loss  to  opera  in  America 
has  never  been  made  good.  His  services  in  the  production 
of  novelties  were  not  more  notable  than  those  bestowed 
upon  operas  long  familiar  to  the  local  list  and  perhaps  even 
less  remarkable  in  behalf  of  the  works  of  his  native  land 
than  those  bestowed  upon  the  masterpieces  of  Wagner  and 
Weber's  "  Euryanthe." 

There  was  little  for  the  newspapers  to  chronicle  about  the 
opera  season  of  1915-16.  The  accounts  which  in  the  ro- 
mantic days  of  storm  and  stress,  told  of  shipwrecks  with 
managerial  hulks  strewn  along  the  beach,  of  ceaseless  con- 
flicts between  singers,  conductors,  and  impresarios,  were 
absent  from  the  story  of  the  season.  Through  a  year  of 
universal  strife  Mr.  Gatti  steered  the  operatic  ship  over  a 
serene  sea  into  a  harbor  of  prosperity  and  reaped  his  re- 
ward in  an  extension  of  his  contract  before  its  expiration. 
It  may  be  that  there  was  a  little  too  much  placidity,  a  little 
too  much  consonantal  harmony  prevalent  in  the  big  theater. 
Critical  historians  with  ideals  are  hard  to  please.  Perhaps 
the  striving  for  higher  things  would  have  been  more  profit- 
able for  art  even  if  accompanied  by  some  discordant  sounds. 
But  the  complacent  progress  maintained  by  the  establish- 
ment seems  to  have  been  invited  and  encouraged  by  the 
people  who  make  opera  possible.  There  had  for  years  been 


IDEALS  AND  COMMERCIALISM  349 

utterances  to  the  effect  that  Mr.  Gatti  and  the  public-spirited 
gentlemen  for  whom  he  acted  had  always  had  immortal 
longings  in  them — had,  indeed,  hungered  and  thirsted  for 
ideal  things  in  art ;  but  the  voice  which  speaks  from  the  box- 
office  had  forbidden  the  realization  of  such  longings  and 
ambitions.  That  voice  is  one  of  awful  authority  and  not 
to  be  disobeyed  with  impunity.  A  generation  before,  when 
the  occupants  of  the  boxes  and  stalls  of  this  season  were 
cutting  their  eye-teeth  on  Wagner,  there  used  occasionally 
to  be  strivings  toward  the  artistic  heights ;  but  the  enjoy- 
ment of  them  was  too  frequently  troubled  by  the  apprehen- 
sion that  the  tenure  of  the  delightful  entertainment  would 
not  be  a  long  one : 

'Tis  man's  perdition  to  be  safe 
When   for  the  truth  he  ought  to  die ; 

and  opera's  also.  One  could  not  quarrel  with  the  manage- 
ment of  the  opera  without  quarreling  also  with  the  public 
whose  tastes  it  served. 

The  season  was  three  weeks  shorter  than  its  immediate 
predecessor,  the  term  of  twenty  weeks  having  been  set 
in  the  preceding  autumn  to  give  the  use  of  the  opera  house 
to  the  Diaghileff  Ballet,  which  was  to  occupy  it  during  the 
month  of  April  while  the  opera  company  gave  a  season  of 
three  weeks  in  Boston  and  one  week  in  Atlanta,  Ga.  The 
contemplation  in  retrospect  of  what  had  been  accomplished 
from  an  artistic  point  of  view  does  not  call  for  loud  en- 
comiums. It  was  one  of  the  consequences  of  the  rut  into 
which  the  Opera  had  fallen,  in  which  in  truth  it  had 
wallowed  for  years,  that  there  was  no  stability  in  the  reper- 
tory except  in  respect  of  the  most  hackneyed  operas 
(preserved  by  the  presence  in  the  company  of  Mr.  Caruso 
and  Miss  Farrar)  and  the  Wagnerian  list  essential  when 
an  appeal  was  to  be  made  especially  outside  of  the  subscrip- 
tion list.  The  success  of  the  Wagnerian  dramas  and  such 
works  as  "  Boris  Godounow  "  and  "  L'Amore  dei  tre  Re," 


350  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  SEASON 

in  which  there  was  no  exploitation  of  the  favorite  singers, 
might  have  been  pursued  farther  than  it  was  had  it  not 
been  for  the  fact  that  the  policy,  no  doubt  based  on  the 
fancies  of  the  people  of  influence  with  the  management, 
compelled  the  distribution  of  the  services  of  singers  like 
Caruso,  Farrar,  and  (for  want  of  a  better)  Madame  Bar- 
rientos,  who  made  her  debut  on  January  31,  1916,  in  "  Lucia 
di  Lammermoor,"  as  extensively  as  possible  over  the  sub- 
scription dates  of  the  season.  Another  newcomer,  Giuseppe 
de  Luca,  baritone,  made  his  first  appearance  in  America 
in  "II  Barbiere  di  Siviglia  "  on  November  25,  1915. 

The  one  addition  to  the  season's  repertory  which  met  with 
real  warmth  was  "  Samson  et  Dalila,"  with  which  the  sea- 
son opened,  and  which  had  been  heard  but  once  before  at 
the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  many  years  before,  and  then 
in  a  slipshod  performance ;  but  it  was  in  no  sense  a  novelty. 
Its  music  was  familiar  from  concert-room  performances 
and  it  had  been  given  in  a  fairly  satisfactory  manner  by 
Mr.  Hammerstein's  people  at  the  Manhattan  Opera  House. 
To  the  subscribers  "  Rheingold,"  which  this  year  found  it- 
self in  the  subscription  list  for  the  first  time  since  the 
German  regime,  was  quite  as  much  of  a  novelty.  A  long 
lapse  of  time  between  its  first  English  production  in  New 
York  and  its  revival  in  the  original  German  version  of 
Goetz's  "  Taming  of  the  Shrew  "  prevents  that  opera  from 
being  put  in  the  same  category.  The  only  real  novelties 
were  the  Russian  opera  "  Prince  Igor "  and  the  Spanish 
"  Goyescas."  The  conditions  of  the  latter  production  were 
so  unusual  that  they  can  not  form  a  precedent,  nor  is  it 
likely  that  the  opera  will  be  heard  of  again.  With  all  the 
charm  of  its  Spanish  dance  rhythms  it  is  too  sadly  lacking 
in  dramatic  quality  to  have  vitality.  It  was  a  singular  con- 
ceit that  a  set  of  pianoforte  pieces  might  be  transformed 
into  an  opera  by  orchestrating  them  and  imposing  solo  and 
ensemble  songs  upon  them.  Liszt  made  symphonic  poems 
out  of  some  of  his  pianoforte  studies,  but  Senor  Granados's 


MARIA  BARRIENTOS 
As  Lakme 


BORODIN'S  "PRINCE  IGOR"  351 

efforts  went  beyond  that.  Borodin's  "  Prince  Igor "  was 
handicapped  by  the  success  won  by  "  Boris  Godounow,"  a 
much  finer  work  also  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  Slavic  folk- 
song. Nevertheless  it  was  well  worth  producing  and  would 
be  well  worth  preserving  in  the  standard  list  of  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  House  if  conditions  were  not  those  which 
have  already  been  discussed,  one  of  which  compelled  this 
Russian  work,  like  its  companion,  to  be  sung  in  Italian 
when  common-sense  suggested  that  if  a  translation  must  be 
made  it  ought  to  be  into  English.  The  temporary  loss  of 
"  L'Amore  dei  tre  Re  "  was  deplorable  and  equally  the  cir- 
cumstance which  brought  it  about.  This  was  the  illness 
of  Mile.  Bori,  who  had  rightly  been  hailed  as  a  valuable 
acquisition  to  the  Metropolitan  forces  by  critics  and  public 
alike.  She  represented  the  element  upon  which  the  better- 
ment of  our  operatic  conditions  largely  depends.  Goetz's 
opera  "  Der  Widerspanstigen  Zahmung  "  came  too  late  in 
the  season  to  receive  fair  judgment  from  the  public.  As  a 
contribution  to  the  Shakespearean  tercentenary  it  came  too 
late  to  be  of  real  consequence  and  a  more  welcome  tribute 
would  have  been  a  fine  revival  of  either  "  'Otello  "  or  "  Fal- 
staff " ;  but  these  are  works  which  have  always  frighted 
the  souls  of  the  Metropolitan  management.  Nevertheless 
Goetz's  opera  is  worthy  of  careful  study  and  shall  re- 
ceive it. 

Borodin's  "  Prince  Igor,"  the  first  of  the  season's  novel- 
ties, had  its  production  on  December  30,  1915.  The  per- 
formance was  conducted  by  Giorgio  Polacco  and  the  people 
concerned  in  the  cast  were  these : 

Yaroslavna  Frances  Alda 

Konchankovna   Flora  Perini 

Nurse   Minnie  Egener 

Prince  Igor  Pasquale  Amato 

Prince    Galitzky  |  *  j          T\J  j 

T^U       v      u  i     r Adamo  Didur 

Khan  Konchak    ) 

Vladimir   Lucca  Botta 

Eroshka   Angelo  Bada 

Skoula  Andrea  Segurola 


352  OPINIONS  OF  TWO  CRITICS 

The  opera  was  Borodin's  child  of  sorrow.  Though  he 
had  had  it  in  mind  for  years  he  never  finished  it  and  heard 
public  performances  of  only  portions  of  it.  The  story  was 
drawn  by  his  friend  Stassow  from  an  epical  poem  of  the 
Russians  which  deals  with  the  adventures  of  the  prince  in  an 
expedition  against  a  nomadic  people  allied  to  the  ancient 
Turks  called  Polovitzi,  who,  according  to  ancient  tradition, 
invaded  Russian  territory  about  the  twelfth  century.  As  in 
the  Russian  poem  there  is  a  conflict  between  Russian  in- 
fluences and  manners  and  those  of  the  farther  East,  so 
Borodin  made  essay  to  preserve  the  same  element  in  his 
music.  He  saturated  himself  with  the  old  literature  on  the 
subject  and  also  made  a  study  of  the  songs  of  the  people 
who  now  live  on  the  steppes  once  occupied  by  the  Polovitzi. 
The  opera  was  completed  after  Borodin's  death  by  Glazou- 
now,  and  Rimsky-Korskow  and  other  friends  used  their 
influence  in  having  it  published.  Portions  of  it  had  been 
sung  and  the  ballet  music  (which  became  one  of  the  features 
of  the  Diaghileff  productions)  played  in  New  York  at  a 
concert  of  the  MacDowell  Chorus  under  the  direction  of 
Kurt  Schindler  on  March  3,  1911.  I  was  not  present  to 
witness  the  first  performance  of  the  opera  and  can  not 
speak  of  its  reception.  My  assistant,  Mr.  Grenville  Vernon, 
writing  in  The  Tribune,  remarked  that  it  was  the  wonderful 
Slavic  choruses  and  the  Tartar  dances  which  raised  "  Prince 
Igor  "  from  the  level  of  dull  Italian  opera.  "  Whenever," 
said  he,  "  Borodin  attempts  to  wax  lyrical  his  soul  under- 
goes a  momentous  change,  loses  its  Slavic  color,  and  drifts 
helplessly  across  the  Alps  into  the  vineyards  and  gardens  of 
Italy.  Here  he  begins  to  dote  on  love  and  pipes  dolefully 
in  the  manner  of  Tuscan  or  Lombard  amorists.  Whether 
it  be  Igor  or  Yaraslovna,  Vladimir  or  Konchankovna  who 
pour  out  their  souls  dulcetly  they  invariably  do  so  in  the 
Italian  manner.  But  when  Borodin  turns  to  the  scenes  of 
carousal  he  turns  full-heartedly.  Give  him  a  chance  to  sing 
of  the  joys  of  vodka  and  he  sings  with  all  the  spirit  of  the 


GRANADOS  AND  HIS  "  GOYESCAS  "  353 

Russian  race.  Here  he  bases  himself  on  the  firm  rock  of 
Slavic  folksong,  and  how  high  does  Bacchus  stand  in  their 
old  lays ! "  My  colleague,  William  J.  Henderson  of  The 
Sun,  recording  the  fact  that  at  the  rehearsal  the  third  act 
had  been  voted  a  bore  and  eliminated,  thought  that  the  opera 
lacked  in  dramatic  continuity  and  could  endure  further 
pruning.  He  praised  the  choruses  and  the  ingeniously  de- 
veloped scenes  of  barbaric  revel  in  the  camp  of  the  Khan. 
Concerning  some  of  the  music  he  said :  "  To  be  sure  we  may 
shrug  an  impatient  shoulder  when  we  find  our  ears  choked 
with  flattened  seconds,  but  we  are  in  the  musical  Orient 
where  the  flat  second  and  the  flat  sixth  dwell  together  in 
loving  fraternity.  But  there  is  other  material  and  most  of  it 
is  serviceable  and  some  of  it  newly  disposed  in  captivating 
patterns.  Borodin  has  written  a  long  and  elaborate  develop- 
ment of  a  choral  dance.  The  music  allotted  to  the  chorus  in 
this  scene  is  highly  effective  and  the  variety  of  figure  in  the 
whole  dance  is  good.  The  glitter  of  costumes  and  the 
agility  of  dancers  do  not  constitute  the  entire  value  of  this 
scene.  It  is  musically  successful." 

The  story  of  "  Goyescas  "  would  have  had  a  sentimental, 
perhaps  a  diverting,  character  had  it  not  terminated  so 
tragically  as  to  become  an  incident  of  world-wide  signifi- 
cance in  the  war.  Through  the  efforts  of  Emilio  de  Gor- 
gorza,  a  singer,  and  Ernest  Schelling,  a  pianist,  some  of  the 
salon  music  of  Granados  had  been  favorably  received  by 
American  audiences.  Though  he  had  written  an  opera  en- 
titled "  Maria  del  Carmen  "  which  had  been  dignified  by  a 
performance  at  Madrid  in  1898  and  another  called  "  Lilian  " 
in  Barcelona  in  1911,  it  can  not  be  said  that  he  had  won  his 
operatic  spurs  when  the  feelings  aroused  by  the  war  led 
his  friends  to  use  their  influence  to  brinj,  him  to  America. 
Out  of  a  set  of  pianoforte  pieces  written  to  illustrate  some 
of  the  paintings  by  Goya,  a  librettist  named  Periquet  con- 
cocted an  opera.  Of  action  the  play  was  comparatively 
guiltless.  The  people  met  twice  in  the  midst  of  as  many 


354      "THE  TAMING  OF  THE  SHREW"  IN  GERMAN 

terpsichorean  whirls.  At  the  last  there  was  an  invisible  duel 
and  the  play  came  to  an  end  with  a  heartbroken  woman 
lamenting  the  killing  of  her  lover.  The  reason  for  the  be- 
ginning, middle,  and  end  of  the  tragedy  was  never  made 
clear  to  the  spectators.  The  listeners  were  treated  to  much 
Spanish  music  most  of  which  they  were  familiar  with  in  its 
original  pianoforte  dress  and  some  of  which  was  re- 
orchestrated  by  others  than  the  composer  after  the  score 
was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  director  of  the  opera.  The 
work  had  five  performances,  the  first  on  January  28,  after 
much  kindly  propaganda  had  been  made  for  the  composer. 
Giovanni  Bavagnoli  conducted  the  representation  and  the 
parts  were  assumed  by  the  following  artists : 

Rosario    Anna  Fitziu 

Pepa   Flora   Perinin 

Fernando    Giovanni   Martinelli 

Paquiro Giuseppi  de  Luca 

A  Public  Singer   Max   Bloch 

After  hearing  his  opera  Senor  Granados  visited  other 
American  cities,  Washington  at  the  last,  with  his  wife,  and 
then  started  for  his  home  in  Spain  in  March,  1916.  Both 
fell  victims  to  the  fiendish  crime  of  the  Germans  in  torpedo- 
ing the  steamer  Sussex  while  she  was  crossing  the  English 
Channel. 

The  German  version  of  "  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  " 
("  Der  Widerspanstigen  Zahmung"),  the  book  by  Joseph 
Viktor  Widmann,  the  music  by  Hermann  Goetz,  was  per- 
formed at  the  Metropolitan  on  March  15,  1916,  under  the 
direction  of  Mr.  Bodanzky  and  with  this  cast: 

Baptista   Otto  Goritz 

Katharina       Margarete  Ober 

Bianca   Maria  Rappold 

Hortensio    Robert   Leonhardt 

Lucentio   Johannes   Sembach 

Petruchio   Clarence  Whitehill 

Grumio    Basil    Ruysdael 


SHAKESPEARE  AND  OPERA  355 

A  Tailor   Albert  Reiss 

Majordomo   Max   Bloch 

Housekeeper  Marie  Mattfeld 

The  opera  was  new  to  the  vast  majority  who  attended  the 
representation,  though  it  had  had  five  performances  at  the 
Academy  of  Music  a  little  more  than  thirty  years  before. 
In  its  operatic  form  the  comedy  was  first  given  in  New 
York  in  an  English  translation,  and  the  wish  must  have 
lain  close  to  many  minds  that  the  vernacular  might  have 
been  used  in  the  revival.  But  unhappily,  our  singers  are 
foreigners.  It  was  with  the  purpose  of  helping  opera  to 
emancipate  itself  from  its  Tuscan  trammel  that  the  Ameri- 
can Opera  Company  had  been  called  into  being  and  that 
this  work  and  Nicolai's  "  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor  "  were 
incorporated  into  its  repertory.*  The  promoters  of  the 
enterprise,  which  started  out  bravely  but  came  to  a  woeful 
end  in  a  short  time,  believed  that  the  time  was  come  to  put 
aside  an  old  affectation  and  do  honor  to  the  vernacular. 
Their  belief  found  expression  in  the  creation  of  an  insti- 
tution which  was  to  strive  to  habilitate  the  English  lan- 
guage on  the  operatic  stage  and  to  do  for  the  United  States 
the  national  work  France,  Germany,  and  Russia  had  ac- 
complished for  themselves.  To  this  end  nothing  seemed  to 
be  more  appropriate  and  dignified  than  a  choice  of  operas 
with  Shakespearean  subjects,  which  seemed  at  least  to 
assure  a  better  knowledge  of  the  plays  and  a  more  sympa- 
thetic interest  in  their  settings  on  the  part  of  performers 
and  public  than  was  generally  prevalent  at  the  time.  But 
the  effort  went  to  waste.  Since  then  the  noblest  attempts 
which  the  world  has  seen  to  give  Shakespearean  plays  an 
operatic  dress  have  been  put  forth  by  two  of  the  finest 
geniuses  of  the  operatic  stage.  Boito  and  Verdi  collabo- 
rated in  "  Otello  "  and  Falstaff."  Tendencies  and  methods 
which  were  only  beginning  to  ripen  in  the  days  of  Goetz, 

*  See  the  author's  "  Chapters  of  Opera."  New  York :  Henry  Holt 
and  Co. 


356  CHANGES  MADE  BY  THE  LIBRETTIST 

who  died  without  having  seen  the  success  of  his  master- 
piece, have  reached  a  marvelous  fruition  and  yet  the  problem 
of  a  Shakespearean  opera  in  English  has  not  been  solved  and 
nothing  can  be  more  obvious  than  the  fact  that  its  solu- 
tion waits  upon  the  coming  of  a  great  musical  dramatist 
born  to  the  English  manner. 

The  German  book  of  "  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  "  is 
an  admirable  piece  of  operatic  work ;  but  it  is  Shakespearean 
only  in  its  externals.    Perhaps  not  even  in  these,  for  it  uses 
only  the  framework  of  the  plot  which  the  English  poet 
himself  borrowed.    So  much  of  the  humor  as  could  be  pre- 
served by  the  chief  incidents  of  the  comedy's  action,  its 
satirical  purpose  and  a  few  of  its  psychological  elements, 
have  found  their  way  into  the  opera ;  but  all  have  suffered  a 
sea-change.     In  part  the  transformation  was  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  introduction  of  music.    The  swift  move- 
ment of  comedy  is  necessarily  clogged  by  music,  as  I  hare 
often  argued.    The  witty  verbal  plays  of  the  original  had  to 
go  by  the  board  in  a  literary  paraphrase  and  the  effervescent 
vitality  of  the  play's  people  had  to  be  submerged  in  the 
music.    Widmann  did  not  attempt  to  translate  Shakespeare's 
play.    He  took  the  characteristic  scenes  between  the  shrew 
and  her  rude  tamer  as  he  found  them,  set  them  off  for 
musical  as  well  as  dramatic  purposes  against  the  secondary 
plot  of  Bianca's  wooing  of  Lucentio  and  Hortensio,  and 
invented  new  speeches  for  all,  going  to  his  original  only 
for  suggestions.     In  a  way  he  may  be  said  to  apply  an 
emollient  to  the  characters  of   Katharine  and   Petruchio. 
The  former  is  more  plainly  conquered  by  her  love  for  the 
masterful  man  in  the  German  libretto  than  in  the  English 
comedy,  and  the  latter  has  a  loftier  motive  for  his  uncouth 
courtship.  After  the  first  encounter  between  the  two,  Shake- 
speare's Katharine  thinks  of  Petruchio  only  as  "  one-half 
lunatic,  a  madcap  ruffian,  and  a  swearing  Jack  that  thinks 
with  oaths  to  face  the  matter  out  " ;  but  the  German  Katha- 
rine has  already  lost  her  heart  when  Petruchio  rapes  her 


TWO  CONCEPTIONS  OF  THE  HEROINE  357 

lips  of  the  first  kiss.  Till  then  she  has  shown  none  of  the 
weaknesses  which  may  be  discovered  in  Shakespeare's  hero- 
ine— her  susceptibility  to  flattery,  her  vanity — she  would  not 
have  Petrucio  even  think  that  she  limps  in  her  walk,  and 
she  can  not  withstand  the  allurement  of  promised  finery. 
But  now  that  she  has  found  a  man  whom  she  can  not  out- 
face she  confesses  that  her  heart  is  already  lost  to  him.  It 
is  the  first  of  her  songs  which  is  not  accompanied  by  a  mu- 
sical tempest,  of  which  there  is  much  too  much  in  Goetz's 
score,  that  betrays  the  fact.  She  is  sorely  torn  between 
conflicting  passions  when  she  confesses  to  herself  that, 
though  she  would  like  to  tear  him  in  pieces,  she  would  yet 
like  to  call  him  her  own;  that  so  long  as  he  draws  breath 
she  needs  must  hate  him,  and  if  he  were  dead  she  could 
not  hate  him;  that  if  she  had  bow  and  arrow  she  would 
shoot  him  dead  and  call  him  back  to  life  with  tears  of  love. 
This  is  a  pretty  touch  of  the  librettist,  and  the  composer  has 
emphasized  its  significance  by  recurring  to  the  fundamental 
motive  of  the  song  when  at  the  last  Katharine  confesses  her 
love  for  Petruchio,  which  she  does  frankly,  open-heartedly, 
unreservedly,  instead  of  veiling  it  under  a  speech  of  wifely 
submission  as  Shakespeare's  shrew  does.  Shakespeare's  Pe- 
truchio is  not  half  so  bad  as  he  sounds.  We  suspect  that, 
though  he  starts  out  with  the  appearance  of  being  a  mer- 
cenary wretch,  bent  only  on  "  wiving  it  wealthily  at  Padua," 
he  puts  on  most  of  the  antic  disposition  after  he  has  caught 
sight  of  the  beauteous  Katharine  and  that  she  inspires  him 
with  an  admiration  quite  likely  to  develop  into  something 
more  passionate  and  loftier.  Mr.  Furnival  says  of  him  in 
his  introduction  to  the  comedy  that  "  he  is  one  of  those  men 
who  like  a  bit  of  devil  in  the  girl  he  marries  and  the  mare 
he  rides."  The  German  librettist  is  not  willing  to  leave  Pe- 
truchio's  real  feelings  to  surmise.  His  man  has  met  the 
lady  before  and  loves  her ;  the  corrective  motive  of  his  ruf- 
fianly behavior  is  to  win  her  love,  for  he  sees  through  her 
nature,  and  fit  her  to  be  the  helpmeet  of  a  man  of  the  world 


358  OTHER  CHANGES  IN  THE  COMEDY 

who  recognizes  that  the  time  is  come  for  him  to  settle  down 
to  a  life  of  quiet  domesticity.  When  she  confesses  her  love 
and  defeat  he  is  quite  as  ready  as  she  to  join  in  a  conven- 
tional operatic  duet.  On  this  duet  the  stage-manager  closed 
the  last  curtain,  but  librettist  and  composer  bring  in  all  the 
other  characters  that  they  may  express  their  wonderment 
at  the  shrew's  conversion. 

The  other  characters  in  the  play  underwent  no  changes 
at  the  hands  of  the  opera-makers,  though  Mr.  Goritz,  unable 
apparently  to  withstand  his  desire  to  create  a  laugh,  in- 
dulged in  some  foolish  horse-play  and  thus  outraged  the 
character  of  Baptista  and  spoiled  some  of  Goetz's  music. 
Lucentio,  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Sembach,  was  also  robbed  of 
some  of  the  dignity  which  it  might  have  preserved  along 
with  its  native  sentimentality.  Grumio  is  little  more  than 
a  voice  in  the  musical  ensemble,  but  the  Tailor  is  turned  into 
a  Frenchman  speaking  German  with  an  accent  to  meet  the 
German  conception  of  humor.  This  conception  finds  ex- 
pression in  a  pairing  of  much  boisterous  music  with  the 
boisterous  conduct  of  Petruchio.  Goetz's  score  is  frequently 
beautiful,  frequently  graceful  (in  a  German  way),  and 
always  scholarly  and  refined.  What  it  lacks  from  beginning 
to  end  is  the  true  vis  comica,  the  lightness  of  touch,  the 
effervescent  sparkle  essential  to  «omedy.  What  I  said  of  it 
thirty  years  before  seems  sufficiently  apposite  to  be  repeated  : 

It  is  polite  music  which  occasionally  threatens  to  carry  off  the 
play  on  a  flood  of  excitement,  but  at  the  critical  moment  retires 
with  an  apology  for  the  intrusion  and  finds  entire  satisfaction  in 
flowing  along  between  flower-embroidered  lyrical  banks,  rippling 
entrancingly  as  it  goes,  but  scarcely  floating  the  comedy  which  it 
should  buoyantly  uphold.  Yet  it  is  noble  music,  the  creation  of  an 
artist  fully  conscious  of  the  changed  relations  of  book  and  music 
since  the  decadence  of  Italian  singsong,  and  most  erudite  in  his 
handling  of  the  elements  of  composition. 

It  cannot  be  amiss  to  call  attention  to  some  of  the  un- 
questioned beauties  of  the  score.  Lucentio's  serenade  at  the 
beginning  is  a  gracious  bit  of  melody  which  flows  easily  and 


THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  OPERA  359 

charmingly  into  the  love-duet  with  Bianca  after  the  first 
interruption  of  Baptista's  servants  in  revolt.  Hortensio  is 
also  provided  with  a  serenade,  but  an  instrumental  one  in 
which  the  character  of  the  band  and  the  style  of  the  music 
recalls  the  kind  of  compositions  which  were  variously  called 
serenades,  divertimenti,  and  cassationi  in  the  time  of  Mozart 
and  Haydn.  The  duet  between  Hortensio  and  Lucentio  is 
one  of  the  few  instances  in  which  the  comedy  style  is  ap- 
proached— capital  throughout.  The  heavy  Teutonic  hand 
does  not  appear  until  Petruchio's  entrance,  and  with  him 
come  occasional  intimations  that  it  is  something  only  a  little 
less  than  the  crack  of  doom  that  is  impending.  Goetz's 
orchestra  takes  Petruchio's  masquerading  altogether  too 
seriously,  and  the  song  in  which  Katharine  first  discloses 
that  the  blind  boy's  bow-shaft  has  struck  her  comes  as  a 
welcome  relief  to  the  orchestral  turmoil.  Petruchio's  song, 
which  ends  the  act,  is  from  Wagner  of  the  "  Lohengrin  " 
vintage.  The  entire  scene  of  Lucentio's  instruction  of  Bi- 
anca in  Latin  and  Hortensio's  music  lesson  is  delightful  in 
its  ingenuity  and  musical  effectiveness.  Widmann  has  Lu- 
centio affect  to  translate  the  opening  lines  of  Virgil's 
"  ^neid "  instead  of  the  verses  from  Ovid's  "  Epistolae 
Heroidum  "  which  served  Shakespeare's  turn,  and  when  the 
operatic  Hortensio  teaches  Bianca  the  gamut  he  does  so  in 
a  song  in  which,  like  Guido  d'Arezzo's  "  Hymn  of  St.  John  " 
("  Ut  queant  laxis"),  every  line  begins  on  a  consecutive 
note  of  the  scale  ascending.  The  concluding  duet,  with  its 
significant  echo  of  Katharine's  soul-conflict,  in  the  second 
act  is  good  dramatic  music,  if  somewhat  too  tragic  for  the 
situation.  There  are  suggestions  of  Wagner  which  militate 
against  the  conviction  of  Goetz's  originality  as  a  melodist, 
but  the  method  throughout  is  Wagner  in  his  "  Lohengrin  " 
period  rather  than  that  of  "  Die  Meistersinger."  The  sys- 
tem of  leading  motives  is  not  employed,  and  that  of  remi- 
niscent phrases  sparingly. 

The  record  of  the  next  season,  1916-17,  was  more  ex- 


360  INCIDENTS  OF  THE  SEASON  1916-17 

traordinary  than  praiseworthy  from  the  artistic  point  of 
view  which  I  have  labored  to  uphold  as  against  that  of  mere, 
sheer  physical  accomplishment.  But  the  world  is  growing 
more  and  more  strenuous  in  proportion  as  it  seems  to  con- 
servative observers  to  be  growing  more  indifferent  to  ex- 
cellence in  any  field  of  art.  From  November  13,  1916,  to 
April  21,  1917,  there  was  not  a  single  secular  day  on  which 
the  singers  and  orchestral  musicians  of  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  were  not  employed  in  operatic  representations. 
As  for  the  orchestra,  there  was  no  respite  even  on  Sundays. 
Seven  operatic  performances  a  week  was  the  rule,  and  to 
make  this  practicable  there  had  to  be  sixteen  visits  to  Phila- 
delphia and  eleven  to  Brooklyn.  There  is  no  operatic  insti- 
tution in  the  world  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company's 
pretensions  to  artistic  dignity  which  would  not  think  such  a 
labor  not  only  monstrous,  but  destructive  of  good  art.  In 
European  opera  houses — like  that  of  Dresden,  for  instance — 
so  much  consideration  is  had  for  the  players  of  the  wood- 
wind instruments  that,  as  Herr  Schuch  told  me  when  he 
visited  New  York  in  the  Conried  period,  an  oboe  player 
was  never  expected  to  play  two  days  in  succession.  But 
even  seven  performances  a  week  did  not  suffice  the  man- 
agement. Thirteen  times  in  the  season  there  were  eight 
performances  a  week,  and  in  the  second  week  of  February 
nine  besides  the  Sunday  concert.  Under  such  circumstances 
is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  many  of  the  representations 
were  marked  by  lassitude  and  many  more  by  per  functor  i- 
ness?  The  wonder  is,  rather,  that  there  were  not  frequent 
breakdowns  of  the  huge  machine  into  which  the  company 
had  been  developed. 

I  can  not  but  believe  that  the  season  was  financially  more 
successful  than  any  of  its  predecessors  under  the  manage- 
ment of  Mr.  Gatti ;  but  it  was  not  greater  in  artistic  achieve- 
ment. In  this  respect  it  fell  short  of  that  of  the  first  year 
of  the  war.  In  that  season  there  were  151  opera  perform- 
ances in  New  York  City  against  149  in  the  season  now  in 


NEW  OPERAS  AND  REVIVALS  361 

mind.  The  attempt  made  in  the  latter  year  to  freshen  the 
repertory  was  energetic  and  commendable ;  but  even  in  this 
regard  the  season  was  not  quite  the  equal  of  that  of  1913-14, 
when  five  absolute  novelties  were  brought  forward.  There 
were  six  works  in  the  repertory  of  1916-17  which  had  not 
been  heard  before  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  under 
Mr.  Gatti's  management;  but  of  the  six  only  four  were 
new  to  the  New  York  public.  The  real  novelties  were  "  Les 
Pecheurs  de  Perles,"  "  Iphigenia  auf  Tauris,"  "  Francesca 
da  Rimini,"  and  an  English,  or  American,  opera,  "  The 
Canterbury  Pilgrims."  "  Thais,"  though  new  to  the  Met- 
ropolitan repertory,  had  been  heard  in  an  earlier  day  at  the 
Manhattan  Opera  House,  while  "  Lakme  "  had  been  per- 
formed at  the  Metropolitan  by  Mme.  Patti  and  her  com- 
pany at  a  special  season  in  April,  1890,  and  afterward 
formed  a  feature  of  the  regular  seasons  of  1891-92  and 
1906-07.  It  also  had  one  performance  at  the  Manhattan 
Opera  House  in  March,  1910.  The  predecessors  in  the  titu- 
lar role  of  Mme.  Barrientos  were  Mme.  Patti,  Miss  Van 
Zandt,  Miss  Nevada,  Mme.  Sembrich,  and  Mme.  Tetrazzini. 
Bizet's  "  Pecheurs  de  Perles  "  must  be  set  down  as  having 
made  a  complete  fiasco.  It  was  performed  three  times  be- 
tween the  opening  night  and  December  13,  but  never  again. 
Gluck's  "  Iphigenia  "  and  Reginald  De  Koven's  "  Canter- 
bury Pilgrims "  ran  the  complete  gamut  of  subscription 
meetings  and  were  given  an  extra  representation  besides. 
Mr.  De  Koven's  opera  received  greater  consideration  than 
that  given  to  any  of  its  predecessors  before  or  since,  but  was 
then  shelved  in  spite  of  the  changed  situation  brought  about 
by  the  succeeding  year.  Righteously  from  an  artistic  point 
of  view,  I  make  no  doubt.  Zandonai's  "  Francesca  da 
Rimini  "  was  a  brave  show,  but  its  musical  beauty  was 
largely  confined  to  its  first  act,  in  which  there  was  no  dra- 
matic interest,  and  to  its  spectacular  interest  to  the  second, 
in  which  the  music  was  reduced  to  its  lowest  estate.  Par- 
ticularly disappointing  was  the  scene  of  the  reading  of  the 


362  "  LES  PECHEURS  DE  PERLES  " 

Arthurian  romance,  which,  of  all  the  scenes  of  the  play, 
calls  most  loudly  for  sensuous  beauty  and  lofty  passion  of 
musical  expression.  Gluck's  "  Iphigenia  auf  Tauris," 
though  beautifully  mounted  and  performed  with  evident 
sincerity,  failed  to  make  a  deep  enough  impression  to  jus- 
tify the  expectation  that  it  would  remain  a  fixture  in  the 
Metropolitan  repertory.  Some  of  the  reasons  were  obvious 
from  the  beginning.  The  work,  which  is  one  of  the  finest 
examples  of  French  classicism,  was  too  much  Teutonized, 
not  only  in  its  language,  but  also  in  the  manner  of  its  per- 
formance. If  it  was  impracticable  to  perform  it  in  French, 
it  ought  to  have  been  given  in  English ;  but  for  English 
performances  such  as  this  work  calls  for  the  Metropolitan 
company  had  not  been  made  ready.  A  translation  into  the 
vernacular  would  have  done  no  greater  violence  to  the 
genius  of  the  French  language  as  Gluck  conserved  it  in  his 
setting  than  did  the  German;  and  we  might  have  been 
spared  some  of  the  bad  vocalization  with  which  we  were 
frequently  overwhelmed  in  this  and  previous  seasons. 

Before  proceeding  with  the  story  of  other  incidents  of 
the  operatic  season  in  New  York  let  me  dispose  of  the  Met- 
ropolitan's novelties.  The  first  was  Bizet's  "  Les  Pecheurs 
de  Perles,"  which  was  given  on  the  opening  night,  November 
13,  1916.  The  performance  was  conducted  by  Giorgio  Po- 
lacco,  and  the  characters  in  the  opera  were  thus  distributed : 

Leila  Frieda  Hempel 

Nadir  Enrico  Caruso 

Zuriga  Giuseppe  de  Luca 

Nourabad  Leon  Rothier 

It  was  officially  given  out  by  the  management  of  the  Met- 
ropolitan Company  that  the  opera,  save  for  the  first  two 
acts,  in  which  Mme.  Calve  had  once  sung  the  part  of  Leila, 
was  new  to  this  country.  Statements  of  this  kind  are  often 
lightly  but  honestly  made,  and  I  am  not  inclined  to  attach  a 
large  measure  of  obliquity  to  them  when  they  prove  to  be  er- 


K\Ku<>  C'AKTSO 
In   "Les    Pccheurs   de    Perles' 


FLEETING  OPERA  COMPANIES  363 

roneous.  Who  can  know  all  about  the  doings  of  the  opera 
companies  which  spring  up  in  America  overnight?  Com- 
panies are  wrecked  annually  in  South  America,  Cuba,  and 
Mexico.  Their  flotsam  and  jetsam  are  cast  upon  the  shores 
of  the  United  States.  Hunger  and  desperation  drive  the 
singers  into  the  hands  of  a  manager — and  lo!  somewhere 
there  appear  flamboyant  announcements  of  the  coming  of  a 
Royal,  or  Imperial,  or  Milanese,  or  La  Scala  Grand  Opera 
Company  which  gives  performances  in  the  metropolis  for 
two  or  three  days,  or  even  one  week,  and  sinks  again  into  the 
bubbling  depths.  Opera  companies  came  and  went  on  the 
East  Side  of  New  York  ever  and  anon  during  the  decade 
whose  story  I  am  trying  to  tell,  and  for  aught  I  know  to  the 
contrary  Bizet's  divers  for  pearls  may  have  fished  in  local 
waters  under  my  very  nose  without  my  getting  a  whiff  of 
their  activities.  It  would  be  a  useless  book  which  should  seek 
to  give  an  account  of  them.  Permanency  in  the  repertory,  or 
what  passes  for  such  in  the  operatic  world,  is  only  gained 
by  performances  by  organizations  which  maintain  a  local 
habitation  and  a  name.  Many  French  operas  which  New 
Yorkers  only  learned  to  know  in  the  period  of  which  I  have 
tried  to  be  the  historian  were  familiar  as  household  words 
to  the  patrons  of  the  French  Opera  in  New  Orleans  when 
they  reached  New  York. 

Twenty-five  or  more  years  ago  the  critics  of  New  York 
whose  knowledge  of  new  operas  could  not  be  satisfied  at 
home  occasionally  ran  over  to  Philadelphia,  where  the  Hin- 
richs  Grand  Opera  Company  was  wont  to  shake  a  novelty 
out  of  its  sleeve  every  week  or  two.  From  Mr.  Hinrichs 
and  his  industrious  singers  came  our  first  knowledge  of 
"Cavalleria  Rusticana,"  "  Pagliacci,"  "  L'Amico  Fritz," 
"  Manon  Lescaut,"  and  several  other  operas,  and  it  was  at 
the  Grand  Opera  House  in  Philadelphia  on  August  25,  1893, 
that  "  Les  Pecheurs  de  Perles  "  had  what  may  have  been  its 
first  performance  in  America,  with  such  well-known  singers 
as  Guille  and  Campanari  in  the  cast.  If  the  performance 


364  REASONS  FOR  THE  REVIVAL 

of  two  acts  of  the  opera  on  January  u,  1896,  did  not  find 
firm  lodgment  in  the  minds  of  the  Metropolitan's  patrons 
the  fact  need  not  cause  much  wonderment.  The  acts  were 
precipitated  on  the  stage  to  oblige  Mme.  Calve  and  to  serve 
as  a  curtain-raiser  for  "  La  Navarraise,"  a  blood-curdling 
little  opera  which  the  lady  sang  and  acted  in  so  realistic  a 
manner  as  to  send  her  audience  home  to  nightmares  instead 
of  restful  sleep.  Afterward  it  was  because  Mme.  Sembrich 
wanted  to  sing  Leila's  airs  that  the  two  acts  were  given  and 
then  put  away  among  forgotten  things  until  Mr.  Gatti 
dragged  them  forth  again  to  make  a  holiday  for  Signer 
Caruso  and  Mme.  Hempel.  No  doubt  it  was  because  Mme. 
Tetrazzini  had  produced  the  opera  in  1904  in  San  Francisco. 

But  it  was  not  necessary  to  impute  such  purely  transient 
motives  to  Mr.  Gatti  for  including  the  opera  in  his  reper- 
tory in  the  season  now  reviewing.  Partly  it  may  have  been 
because  it  had  become  almost  a  mania  for  managers  to  rum- 
mage among  the  early  works  of  composers  who  had  achieved 
a  masterpiece  in  the  hope  of  finding  among  them  some  of 
the  stepping-stones  which  had  led  to  the  higher  things.  Such 
a  proceeding  is  always  fraught  with  danger.  It  implies  an 
extravagant  estimate  of  every  excellency  which  may  be 
found  in  the  work,  to  say  nothing  of  a  reflection  on  the 
judgment  of  contemporary  criticism.  Had  there  been  no 
"  Carmen,"  it  is  not  likely  that  we  should  ever  have  heard 
of  "  Les  Pecheurs  de  Perles  "  after  it  had  had  its  trial  and 
been  found  wanting  in  Paris.  "  La  jolie  Fille  de  Perth  " 
and  "  Djamileh  "  came  later ;  there  has  been  no  thought  of 
producing  them  here,  though  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
they  are  riper  products  of  Bizet's  genius. 

In  the  case  of  Mr.  Gatti's  exhibition  of  interest  in  the 
work  it  is  probable  that  an  amiable  bias  in  favor  of  Italian 
opera  led  to  the  belief  that  "  Les  Pecheurs  "  bears  evidence 
to  a  spiritual  affiliation  between  Bizet,  a  representative 
French  composer,  and  Verdi,  the  highest  embodiment  of  the 
best  modern  Italian  manner.  On  Bizet's  return  to  Paris 


BIZET,  WAGNER,  AND  VERDI  365 

after  his  sojourn  in  Rome  as  a  winner  of  the  government's 
finest  prize  he  belonged  to  the  coterie  of  musicians  that 
contemned  the  Conservatoire  and  its  methods  and  lauded 
Wagner — Wagner  and  Verdi.  To  Jouvin,  who  refused  to 
swing  the  censer  under  the  nose  of  the  great  German,  Bizet 
once  said :  "  You  love  Verdi's  music  ?  Very  well ;  Wagner 
is  Verdi  with  style !  "  Now  there  is  nothing  inconsistent 
in  liking  or  even  in  loving  the  music  of  both  Wagner  and 
Verdi ;  but  it  seems  to  me  to  require  a  great  stretch  of  the 
imagination  to  find  either  Verdism  or  Wagnerism  in  the 
music  of  "  Les  Pecheurs  de  Perles  "  or  even  "  Carmen. " 
The  dramatic  language  of  the  latter  where  it  is  most  elo- 
quent is  most  individually  Bizetesque.  The  dramatic  lan- 
guage of  the  former,  of  which  there  is  little,  is  a  hotch- 
potch of  empiricism.  It  ranges  from  Herold  through  Gou- 
nod to  Meyerbeer  and  Verdi  at  their  worst.  We  think  of 
both  of  the  latter  two  in  the  finale  of  the  first  act  ("  Dans  le 
ciel  "  and  "  Ah,  chante,  chante  encore  "),  which  is  about  the 
paltriest  music  to  which  the  walls  of  the  Metropolitan  have 
resounded,  except  at  a  Lambs'  gambol.  We  have  a  premo- 
nition of  "  Carmen "  in  the  cavatina  of  the  first  act 
("  Comme  autrefois  dans  la  nuit  sombre"),  even  down  to 
the  horn  melody,  but  it  is  only  because  both  cavatina  and 
Micaela's  romance  belong  to  a  type  with  the  creation  of 
which  Bizet  had  nothing  to  do,  and  because  for  the  time 
being  the  chaste  priestess  of  the  earlier  opera  slips  into  the 
skin  of  the  insipid  maiden  of  the  later,  who  was  created  only 
that  there  might  be  a  little  admixture  of  virtue  in  the 
viciousness  of  the  fierce  Spanish  story. 

Had  there  been  the  faintest  stirring  of  the  genius  which 
created  "  Carmen "  in  Bizet  when  he  was  writing  "  Les 
Pecheurs " — anything  beyond  the  love  of  an  occasional 
piquancy  of  harmonization  or  orchestration — it  is  incon- 
ceivable that  he  would  have  undertaken  to  set  so  common- 
place and  foolish  a  play  as  this.  He  who  treated  local  color 
in  so  masterly  a  manner  in  "  Carmen  "  and  "  L'Arlesienne  " 


366  PLOT  OF  THE  OPERA 

does  not  seem  even  to  have  taken  the  trouble  to  study  the 
palette  of  Felicien  David  while  setting  an  Oriental  story. 
His  efforts  at  Orientalism  are  almost  infantile  and  show 
maturity  only  in  the  ballet  music  of  the  last  act,  which  he 
wrote — so,  at  least,  it  is  said — for  the  opera  "  Noe  "  of  his 
father-in-law,  Halevy,  though  why  antediluvian  women 
should  have  danced  like  Gaditanian  I  do  not  know.  The 
recurrence  ever  and  anon  of  a  melody  (slightly  suggestive 
of  the  "  Ave  Maria  "  wrongly  accredited  to  Arcadelt)  which 
is  associated  with  the  love  of  Leila  and  Nadir,  and  which  is 
ecstatically  sung  by  the  lovers  when  they  leave  the  scene  for 
the  last  time,  was  probably  considered  Wagnerisme  when  it 
was  first  heard;  but  such  dramatic  reminiscences  were  an 
old  device  when  Wagner  set  out  on  his  career  as  a  com- 
poser. 

The  story  of  "  Lakme  "  has  a  bit  of  "  Norma  "  in  it  in  that 
a  vestal  virgin  is  discovered  to  be  not  all  that  a  vestal  vir- 
gin should  be,  though  Leila  does  not  seem  to  have  gone  to 
the  extreme  of  the  Druidic  priestess.  She,  who  has  sworn 
not  to  love  a  man  or  show  her  face  to  one,  is  discovered  to 
have  loved  the  tenor  and  to  have  been  loved  by  both  him  and 
the  baritone.  Wherefore  the  implacable  Ceylonese  pearl- 
fishers  to  whom  she  has  to  bring  luck  by  singing  in  the 
Meyerbeerian  manner  condemn  her  to  death  by  fire.  Their 
chief,  however,  who  is  the  sworn  friend  of  her  lover,  though 
his  rival,  discovers  at  the  last  moment  by  means  of  a  string 
of  beads  (like  those  of  the  blind  woman  in  "  Gioconda  ") 
that  she  had  once  saved  his  life.  So  to  save  hers  he  sets 
fire  to  a  village  and  tells  her  and  her  lover  to  run  away  from 
there  while  the  Ceylonese  are  saving  their  household  goods. 
They  escape  slowly  to  the  opera's  Leitmotif.  Books  and 
stage-managers  do  not  agree  as  to  what  happens  after  that. 
Originally,  I  believe,  the  Ceylonese,  wanting  to  burn  some- 
body, burn  Zurga,  their  chief,  who  had  been  parti ceps  crimi- 
nis  in  the  escape.  But  at  the  Metropolitan  performance 
Nourabad,  the  high-priest,  put  a  knife  into  Nadir's  back, 


GLUCK'S  "  IPHIGENIA  AUF  TAURIS  "  367 

which  seemed  as  good  a  way  as  any  to  bring  the  curtain 
down. 

Gluck's  "  Iphigenia  auf  Tauris  "  (to  adopt  its  German 
title)  was  brought  forward  at  an  afternoon  performance 
under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Bodanzky  on  November  25,  1916, 
with  the  people  of  the  play  represented  as  follows : 

Diana   Marie  Rappold 

Iphigenia Melanie  Kurt 

Orestes  Hermann  Weil 

Pylades   Johannes  Sembach 

Thoas  Carl  Braun 

First  Priestess  Marie  Sundelius 

Second  Priestess  Alice  Eversman 

A  Temple  Attendant  Robert  Leonhardt 

A  Greek  Slave  Leonora  Sparkes 

The  lyric  drama  of  today,  as  it  reflects  the  careless  tastes 
and  idle  desires  of  the  times,  is  immeasurably  distant  from 
the  tragedy  with  music  as  Gluck  conceived  it ;  yet  note  a 
fact  of  big  and  lovely  purport :  for  half  an  hour  of  this 
representation  a  matinee  audience  of  whose  character  I  have 
been  inclined  to  make  light  sat  spellbound — not  like  a  gather- 
ing of  pleased  pleasure-seekers,  but  more  like  a  congrega- 
tion of  religious  worshipers — listening  to  songs  and  witness- 
ing a  mimicking  of  ancient  rites  connected  with  the  conse- 
cration of  a  human  sacrifice ;  listening,  too,  to  music  which 
a  village  choir  today  might  think  too  simple  for  its  consider- 
ation and  looking  upon  the  pantomimic  posturing  of  a 
dancer  as  if  upon  such  song  and  movement  hang  everlast- 
ing things.  And  so  they  do ;  for  in  what  Iphigenia  chanted, 
the  orchestra  sang,  and  Rosina  Galli  expressed  in  exquisite 
pose  and  eloquent  movement  in  the  second  act  of  the  opera 
there  lies  the  essence  of  all  that  inspired  the  drama  at  its 
birth  and  will  live  in  it  till  its  death.  I  must  assume  a  rea- 
sonable familiarity  on  the  part  of  the  reader  with  the  an- 
tique story  of  Iphigenia  as  told  in  the  tragedy  of  Euripides 
of  which  the  original  French  tragedy  is  a  paraphrase.  For 
those  who  do  not  know  it — or,  knowing,  have  no  sympathy 


368  A  CLIMAX  CREATED  BY  A  DANCER 

with  its  sentiments  and  teachings — there  can  be  no  interest 
in  Gluck's  wonderful  art-work,  which  is  a  perversion  of  the 
original,  albeit  a  respectful  one  ;  nothing  in  its  music,  which 
is  all  foreign  to  the  taste  of  today ;  nothing  in  its  action, 
which  is  simple  in  the  extreme,  and  little  in  its  scenic  outfit, 
although  an  American  artist,  Mr.  Monroe  Hewlett,  had 
wrought  for  the  play  beautiful  pictures  in  a  reverent  mood. 
If  I  have  singled  out  a  moment  for  comment  which  seemed 
to  me  of  supremest  beauty  it  is  because  in  it  I  found  the 
most  perfect  realization  of  the  classic  ideal.  In  Iphigenia 
kneeling  at  the  altar  in  the  temple  of  Diana  invoking  a 
blessing  upon  a  deed  against  which  her  gentle  heart  rebelled, 
pouring  out  a  libation  for  a  brother  whom  she  was  unknow- 
ingly consecrating  to  a  sacrificial  death,  while  the  vestal 
virgins  chanted  a  requiem  and  a  priestess  vitalized  speech 
and  tone  with  gestures  of  exquisite  grace  and  loveliness, 
there  was  a  dramatic  consummation  which  put  to  shame  all 
the  efforts  that  had  but  recently  been  made  in  academic  cir- 
cles to  humanize  the  old  tragedy  by  an  attempt  to  mimic  it 
in  the  commonplace  pose  and  action  of  today,  and  all  the 
choreographic  platitudes  and  conventions  of  the  Ballet  Russe 
which  had  for  a  period  become  a  fad.  In  the  things  which 
the  audience  saw  and  heard  within  the  significant  half-hour 
they  were  made  conscious  of  the  beauty  and  eloquence  of 
Hellenic  art.  Much  of  the  dialogue,  Teutonized  to  the  ex- 
tinction of  its  declamatory  grace  and  fitness,  and  much  of 
the  song  vulgarized  by  a  style  foreign  to  its  spirit,  could  with 
difficulty  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the  genius  of  the 
old  ritual  drama  which  Gluck  and  his  poet  tried  to  fit  to  the 
lyric  stage.  There  was  much  rude  singing,  but  when,  to 
the  exquisite  music  which  Mr.  Bodanzky  borrowed  from 
"  Orfeo,"  Signora  Galli  spoke  the  language  of  ritual  "  with 
woven  paces  and  waving  arms "  eternal  conceptions  of 
beauty  and  truthfulness  were  made  manifest. 

Listeners   familiar  with  the  French  language  regretted 
that  the  tragedy  was  not  sung  in  its  original  tongue ;   stick- 


"  FRANCESCA  DA  RIMINI  "  369 

lers  for  purity  in  the  musical  classics  deplored  that  it  should 
have  been  thought  necessary  to  introduce  into  the  score  the 
sophistications  of  Richard  Strauss,  some  of  which,  espe- 
cially a  short  chorus  at  the  close  of  the  work,  were  in  bad 
taste;  but  every  lover  of  a  noble  type  of  lyric  drama  felt 
grateful  to  Mr.  Gatti,  Mr.  Bodanzky,  and  the  German  con- 
tingent of  the  Metropolitan  company  for  having  enabled 
them  to  get  acquainted  with  a  work  of  which  it  can  be  said 
as  truthfully  as  it  can  of  anything  of  its  kind  that  it  was 
not  born  to  die. 

Mr.  Gatti's  third  novelty,  "  Francesca  da  Rimini,"  was 
presented  on  December  22,  1916.  At  this  premiere  and  that 
of  Mr.  De  Koven's  "  Canterbury  Pilgrims  "  on  March  8, 
1917,  I  was  not  able  to  be  present  because  of  absence  from 
the  city.  The  former  opera,  conducted  by  Giorgio  Polacco, 
had  the  following  cast : 

Francesca  Frances  Alda 

Samaritana   Edith  Mason 

Istasio   Riccardo  Tegani 

Giovanni    Pasquale    Amato 

Paolo    Giovanni  Martinelli 

Malatestmo Angelo  Bada 

Biancofiore  Mabel  Garrison 

Garsenda   Leonora   Sparkes 

Altichiara    Sophie   Braslau 

Donella   Raymonde  Delannois 

A  Maid  of  Honor  Queenie  Smith 

The  Slave Flora  Perini 

A  Notary  Pietro  Audisio 

A  Jester  Pompilio  Malatesta 

An  Archer  Max  Bloch 

A  Torchbearer    Vincenzo  Reschiglian 

Of  Zandonai's  "  Conchita  "  I  have  spoken  at  considerable 
length.  The  composer  had  a  more  attractive  subject  in  this 
work,  but  it  did  not  reveal  his  talent  of  inventiveness  in  so 
favorable  a  light.  I  have  already  spoken  of  its  most  notice- 
able weakness.  "  Francesca  "  was  first  performed  at  Turin 
on  February  18,  1914,  and  had  a  production  at  Covent  Gar- 
den, London,  on  July  16  of  the  same  year.  The  drama  on 


370  "THE  CANTERBURY  PILGRIMS" 

which  the  libretto  by  D'Annunzio  was  based  had  been  played 
in  America  by  Eleanora  Duse,  so  there  was  nothing  novel 
about  its  treatment  of  the  old  theme.  It  was  abridged  and 
adapted  by  Tito  Ricordi,  the  publisher,  but  the  language 
was  that  of  the  poet.  The  plot  needs  be  told  only  in  outline : 
For  reasons  of  state  Francesca  is  to  be  married  to  the  phys- 
ically and  morally  deformed  Giovanni  Malatesta.  Knowing 
that  she  would  refuse  to  marry  him  if  she  saw  him,  a  trick 
is  played  upon  her,  Giovanni's  handsome  brother  Paolo 
being  passed  off  upon  her  as  her  destined  husband.  In  a 
second  act,  during  a  fight  on  the  battlements  of  the  castle  of 
Malatesti,  Francesca  reproaches  Paolo  for  the  fraud.  He 
protests  his  innocence  and  reveals  his  love,  but  leaves  the 
place  for  Florence,  where  he  has  been  elected  Captain  of 
the  People.  In  the  third  act  comes  the  famous  scene  as  told 
by  Dante,  where  Paolo  and  Francesca  read  together  the 
story  of  Lancelot  and  Guinevere.  Love  overcomes  them 
and  their  lips  meet  in  their  first  kiss.  In  the  last  act  Mala- 
testino,  Giovanni's  youngest  brother,  who  is  also  in  love 
with  Francesca,  betrays  Paolo,  and  the  outraged  husband 
kills  the  lovers  while  they  are  enfolded  in  each  other's  arms. 
"  The  Canterbury  Pilgrims,"  an  English  opera  by  Percy 
Mackaye  and  Reginald  De  Koven,  was  performed  for  the 
first  time  on  March  8,  1917.  Mr.  Bodanzky  conducted,  and 
the  cast  was  as  follows : 

Chaucer  Johannes  Sembach 

The  Knight  Robert  Leonhardt 

The  Squire  Paul  Althouse 

The  Friar  Max  Bloch 

The  Miller  Basil  Ruysdael 

The  Cook   Pompilio  Maletesta 

The  Shipman  Maria  Laurenti 

The  Summoner   Carl   Schlegel 

The  Pardoner  Julius  Bayer 

The  Host  Giulio  Rossi 

Man  of  Law  Robert  Leonhardt 

Joannes  Pietro  Audisio 

King  Richard  II  Albert  Reiss 

Herald  Riccardo  Tegani 


MR.  MACKAYE  ON  HIS  WORK  371 

Alisoun,  The  Wife  of  Bath   Margaret  Ober 

Margarete,  The  Prioress   Edith  Mason 

Johanna  Marie  Sundelius 

Two  Girls   (Maria  Tiffany 

{  Minnie  Egener 

I  shall  let  the  author  of  the  libretto  give  his  own  account 
of  how  the  opera  came  to  be  written.  Said  Mr.  Mackaye : 

In  writing  "  The  Canterbury  Pilgrims  "  one  of  my  chief  incentives 
was  to  portray  for  a  modern  audience  one  of  the  greatest  poets 
of  all  times  in  relation  to  a  group  of  his  own  characters.  As  a 
romancer  of  prolific  imagination  and  dramatic  insight  Chaucer 
stands  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  Shakespeare.  For  English  speech 
he  achieved  what  Dante  did  for  Italian,  raising  a  local  dialect  to  a 
world  language.  Yet  the  fourteenth  century  speech  of  Chaucer  is 
just  archaiac  enough  to  make  it  difficult  to  understand  in  modern 
times.  Consequently  his  works  are  little  known  today  except  by 
students  of  English  literature.  To  make  it  more  popularly  known 
I  prepared,  a  few  years  ago  (with  Prof.  J.  S.  P.  Tatlock),  "The 
Modern  Reader's  Chaucer,"  published  by  Macmillan ;  and  I  wrote 
for  Mr.  E.  H.  Sothern  in  1903  my  play  "  The  Canterbury  Pilgrims," 
which  since  then  has  been  acted  at  many  American  universities  by 
the  Coburn  Players  and  in  published  form  is  used  in  numerous 
Chaucer  classes  In  the  spring  of  1914,  at  the  suggestion  of 
Reginald  De  Koven,  I  remodeled  the  play  in  the  form  of  opera,  con- 
densing in  characters  to  the  more  simple  essentials  appropriate  to 
operatic  production. 

There  was  also  a  great  deal  of  thundering  in  the  index 
touching  the  new  English  opera  on  the  part  of  the  com- 
poser, and  it  received  remarkable  consideration  on  the  part 
of  the  management  of  the  Opera  House.  The  conditions  of 
the  next  season  should  have  been  propitious  to  it  had  the 
critical  judgment  of  management,  press,  and  public  spoken 
with  sufficient  loudness  in  its  favor.  But  it  did  not ;  and 
the  work  went  the  way  of  much  better  operatic  flesh. 

A  few  incidents  of  the  season  which  can  not  be  discussed 
as  fully  as  those  connected  with  the  history  of  the  Metro- 
politan Opera  Company  remain  to  be  put  on  record.  For  a 
week  after  November  6,  1916,  there  were  nightly  perform- 
ances of  opera  by  an  organization  calling  itself  the  Boston 


372  THE  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICAN  SINGERS 

National  Grand  Opera  Company,  of  which  Max  Rabinoff 
was  general  manager  and  Roberto  Moranzoni  principal 
conductor,  at  the  Lexington  Theater,  as  the  house  was  now 
called  which  Mr.  Hammerstein  had  built  to  be  the  home  of 
the  institution  which  he  had  planned  to  set  up  in  opposition 
to  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House.  There  were  a  number  of 
artists  in  the  company  who  had  established  themselves  in 
good  repute  and  some  of  whom,  like  the  conductor,  later 
joined  Mr.  Gatti's  forces.  The  operas  performed  were 
"Andrea  Chenier,"  "  Madama  Butterfly,"  "  L'Amore  dei 
tre  Re,"  "  Iris,"  and  La  Boheme."  Cursory  comment  on 
such  seasons  have  sometimes  been  made  in  these  memoirs, 
but  oftener  omitted,  since  they  exerted  no  permanent  in- 
fluence upon  operatic  development  in  New  York  at  least, 
whatever  they  may  have  accomplished  in  other  parts  of  the 
country. 

An  enterprise  which  disclosed  idealistic  aims  quite  beyond 
the  ordinary  had  preceded  it  by  a  short  time,  having  been 
called  into  existence  by  Mr.  Albert  Reiss  and  other  artists 
who  had  the  promotion  of  a  national  art  as  their  purpose. 
Under  Mr.  Reiss's  management  and  the  musical  direction  of 
Mr.  Sam  Franko,  a  pair  of  performances  was  given  at  the 
New  Empire  Theater  to  Mozart's  youthful  opera,  "  Bastien 
et  Bastienne,"  in  an  English  version  by  A.  Mattulath,  and 
to  an  operetta  called  "  The  Impresario,"  whose  music  dated 
from  the  heyday  of  Mozart's  genius  and  which  had  been 
woven  into  an  amiably  satirical  comedy  by  the  writer  of 
these  memoirs.  The  singers  concerned  in  these  perform- 
ances were  Miss  Mabel  Garrison,  Miss  Lucy  Gates,  Mr. 
Reiss,  and  David  Bispham.  Out  of  this  experiment,  which 
proved  phenomenally  successful,  there  grew  a  Society  of 
American  Singers,  which  in  the  following  May  gave  a 
longer  season  at  the  Lyceum  Theater.  By  this  time  an  or- 
ganization had  been  effected  on  a  co-operative  basis  which 
enlisted  a  number  of  excellent  artists  and  to  the  two  Mozart 
pieces  were  added  English  versions  of  Gounod's  "  Le 


MOZART'S  MUSIC  IN  NEW  YORK  373 

Medecin  malgre  lui "  ("The  Mock  Doctor"),  Pergolesi's 
"  La  Serva  padrona  "  ("  The  Maid  Mistress  "),  and  Doni- 
zetti's "  II  Campanello  "  ("  The  Night  Bell  ").  In  the  sea- 
son 1818-19  the  organization,  now  under  the  presidency  of 
William  Wade  Hinshaw,  gave  a  season  from  early  fall  till 
spring  at  the  Park  Theater ;  but  its  personnel  had  mean- 
while undergone  a  change  as  had  also  its  ideals.  It  be- 
came an  English  opera  company  of  the  type  with  which 
the  country  has  been  familiar  for  generations,  and  its  finan- 
cial integrity  was  saved  by  a  reversion  to  performances 
of  the  operettas  of  Gilbert  and  Sullivan. 

A  vast  amount  of  puzzled  comment  was  mingled  in  the 
newspapers  with  enthusiastic  praise  which  greeted  the  pro- 
duction of  the  two  thitherto  unknown  works  of  Mozart 
at  the  New  Empire  Theater.  Why  had  this  music,  which 
proved  to  be  so  charming,  never  been  heard  in  public  in 
New  York  before?  The  answer  was  not  difficult.  Com- 
paratively only  an  infinitesimal  portion  of  the  music  which 
Mozart  composed  in  his  short  life  has  survived  in  our 
theaters  and  concert-rooms.  Of  his  forty-nine  sym- 
phonies only  three  are  familiar, — though  there  are  others 
which  the  public  could  and  would  enjoy  if  opportunity 
offered.  Two  or  three  of  his  seventeen  string  quartets  are 
in  the  repertories  of  our  chamber  music  organizations.  A 
Papal  edict  has  banished  his  masses  from  the  Catholic 
church,  and  it  was  the  irony  of  fate  that  the  most'  popular 
of  these  compositions,  "  Mozart's  Great  Mass  in  C  "  as  it 
was  called,  was  not  his  composition  at  all  but  a  clever  piece 
of  music  made,  I  believe,  in  England,  to  which  a  conscience- 
less publisher  attached  Mozart's  name.  Amateur  players 
delight  in  a  few  of  his  sonatas  for  violin,  and  pianoforte 
teachers  prescribe  two  or  three  of  his  pianoforte  sonatas 
for  young  pupils.  Of  his  twenty-three  operas  we  know 
more  or  less  well  three :  "  Don  Giovanni,"  "  Le  Nozze  di  Fi- 
garo," and  "  Die  Zauberflote."  The  Mozart  tradition  is 
departing  from  our  stage,  nor  will  it  return  until  popular 


374  "THE  IMPRESARIO" 

taste  compels  a  reform  in  the  manner  of  writing  for  the 
voice  and  greater  thoroughness  in  vocal  instruction. 

Several  reasons  might  be  found  for  the  absence  from 
the  local  stage  of  the  work  which  was  performed  under 
the  title  of  "  The  Impresario."  "  The  Impresario  "  is  not 
an  opera  at  all,  though  it  is  always  listed  among  Mozart's 
operatic  compositions.  Its  music  for  the  greater  part  is 
incidental  music  for  a  comedy  containing  a  scene  in  which 
two  opera  singers,  after  being  engaged  by  a  distracted  the- 
atrical manager,  fall  to  quarreling  about  their  rank  in  the 
company,  each  insisting  that  she  is  the  prima  donna.  This 
number,  turned  into  a  trio  by  the  introduction  of  a  buffo 
tenor  who  seeks  to  make  peace  between  the  women,  is  the 
gem  of  the  work  and  the  immediate  cause  of  its  preserva- 
tion for  the  stage.  The  other  music  composed  for  the  origi- 
nal comedy  consists  of  the  overture,  two  arias  in  which  the 
singers  exhibit  their  skill,  and  a  finale  for  three  voices  in 
which  there  is  a  preachment  touching  the  attitude  which 
artists  ought  to  assume  toward  each  other  for  the  good  of 
art.  The  comedy  would  not  bear  reviving,  though  I  believe 
it  was  attempted  fifty  years  ago  in  an  English  version 
which  was  performed  a  few  times  at  the  Crystal  Palace. 

When  Louis  Schneider  created  the  operetta  which  is  cur- 
rent in  Germany  under  the  title  "  Der  Schauspieldirektor," 
he  used  all  of  the  original  music  and  supplemented  it  with 
three  songs  and  another  trio  of  Mozart's  composition ;  and 
these  were  orchestrated  by  Taubert.  The  plot  of  Schneider's 
operetta,  in  which  Mozart  was  introduced  along  with  Schi- 
kaneder,  was  used  as  a  basis  by  the  maker  of  the  book  for 
the  operetta  as  produced  by  Mr.  Reiss,  though  the  English 
author  proceeded  with  a  free  hand  in  the  construction  of 
the  dialogue,  aiming  to  direct  its  satirical  shafts  at  some  of 
the  idiosyncrasies  of  opera  people  as  they  seem  always  to 
have  existed,  exist  today,  and  will  probably  continue  to 
exist  in  scecula  saculorum.  He  also  presented  a  few  his- 
torical elements,  including  the  circumstance  that  Mozart 


HISTORICAL  ELEMENTS  INTRODUCED  375 

and  Schikaneder  were  compelled  by  one  of  their  rivals  to 
change  the  plot  of  "  Die  Zauberflote  "  on  which  they  are 
supposed  to  be  at  work  in  the  progress  of  the  comedy.  Mr. 
Krehbiel  also  made  historical  people  out  of  the  women  of 
the  play.  The  success  of  the  first  performance  was  so  in- 
stantaneous and  emphatic  that  before  Mr.  Reiss  had  left  the 
theater  he  was  overwhelmed  by  demands  for  a  greater  num- 
ber of  performances  and  arranged  some  for  the  following 
week  at  the  Garrick  Theater. 


CHAPTER  XV 

CONCERT  MUSIC  AND  THE  OPERA 
IN  WAR-TIME 

GRADUAL  CHANGE  IN  SENTIMENT  AFTER  THE  OUTBREAK  OF  HOS- 
TILITIES—MR. BODANZKY— A  BOYCOTT  DECLARED  BY  GER- 
MANY AGAINST  AMERICAN  OPERA  HOUSES  —  ENGAGING 
GERMAN  SINGERS  IN  THE  OLDEN  TIME— DRAW-POKER  AS  AN 
EMOLLIENT— FIRST  DEMONSTRATIONS  OF  PATRIOTIC  FEEL- 
ING AT  THE  METROPOLITAN— THE  QUESTION  OF  ENEMY 
ALIENS  IN  THE  COMPANY— HANS  TAUSCHF.R  AND  HIS  WIFE 
MME.  GADSKI— A  PLEA  FOR  NATIVE  SINGERS— CHANGES  IN 
THE  CONCERT-FIELD—FOREIGN  ARTISTS— KUNWALD  AND 
MUCK  INTERNED— A  TAX  ON  ENTERTAINMENTS— THE  OPERA 
PROSPECTUS  FOR  1917-18— DISMISSAL  OF  GERMAN  SINGERS— 
THE  HISTORICAL  NARRATIVE  RESUMED— A  VISIT  FROM  THE 
CHICAGO  COMPANY— ITS  NOVELTIES—"  ISABEAU  "— "  AZORA  " 
— "  LE  SAUTERIOT  "—MME.  GALLI-CURCI— NEW  WORKS  AT 
THE  METROPOLITAN—"  MAR&UF  "— "  SAINT  ELIZABETH  "— 
"  LODOLETTA  "— A  REVIVAL  OF  "  LE  PROPHETE  "— "  LE  COQ 
D'OR  "— "  SHANEWIS  "— WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE? 

THE  United  States  did  not  become  embroiled  in  the  war 
until  within  a  fortnight  of  the  end  of  the  third  season  after 
the  beginning  of  the  universal  upheaval.  During  these  sea- 
sons, after  the  first  flurry  of  financial  apprehension  and 
the  slight  reorganization  to  which  I  alluded  in  the  preceding 
chapter  of  these  memoirs,  for  which  the  general  condition 
of  affairs  offered  occasion  if  not  an  excuse,  there  was  no 
appreciable  change  of  policy  on  the  part  of  the  management 
of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  and  nothing  in  the  at- 
titude of  the  public  to  suggest  the  need  of  one.  The  reper- 
tories were  predominantly  Italian,  but  the  dramas  of 
Wagner  had  more  numerous  representation  than  those  of 
any  other  composer  and  were  relied  on  particularly  for  the 
performances  outside  of  the  subscription  because  of  their 
attractive  power  with  the  general  public.  The  list  of  Ger- 


THE  COMING  OF  MR.  BODANZKY  377 

man  singers  was  kept  full  and  received  a  few  acquisitions. 
Mr.  Artur  Bodanzky,  a  new  German  conductor,  came  in 
1915-16,  though  his  coming  had  nothing  to  do  with  war 
conditions.  He  came  to  replace  Mr.  Alfred  Hertz,  who  at 
the  end  of  the  preceding  season  had  resigned  a  post  which 
he  had  held  for  thirteen  years.  To  bring  Mr.  Bodanzky,  an 
Austrian,  from  Mannheim,  where  he  was  conductor  of  the 
Opera,  required  the  consent  of  both  the  British  and  French 
governments,  which  was  obtained  without  difficulty  through 
diplomatic  channels.  By  the  end  of  the  season,  I  am  told, 
he  had  made  up  his  mind  that  his  future  home  should  be 
America  and  though  he  was  forced  to  face  an  emotional 
ordeal  when  a  popular  demonstration  in  the  midst  of  a  per- 
formance greeted  the  intelligence  that  President  Wilson  had 
asked  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  declare  that  a 
state  of  war  existed  between  our  country  and  Germany,  he 
did  not  flinch  but  conducted  an  impromptu  performance  of 
"  The  Star-Spangled  Banner."  Mme.  Destinn,  absent  from 
the  season  of  1915-16,  returned  for  the  next.  To  the 
standard  list  of  German  operas,  which  included  all  of  Wag- 
ner's works  from  "  Tannhauser  "  to  "Parsifal"  inclusive, 
there  were  no  additions  which  could  be  reckoned  as  signifi- 
cant, but  no  subtractions.  Goetz's  "  Der  Widerspanstigen 
Zahmung  "  ("  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  ")  was  toyed  with 
rather  half-heartedly,  I  thought,  in  the  season  of  1915-16 
and  Gluck's  French  "  Iphigenie  en  Tauride  "  was  performed 
in  German  in  the  next  season.  All  this  with  appropriately 
illuminating  gloss  already  has  been  set  forth  in  this 
book.  The  important  point  to  be  kept  in  view  is  that  the 
German  operas  not  only  kept  their  places  in  the  first  three 
years  of  the  war  but  also  their  predominance  in  the  popular 
representations.  There  was  some  falling  off  in  the  sub- 
scriptions but  no  complaint  of  a  large  loss  in  general  re- 
ceipts. That  was  accounted  for  by  the  widespread  pros- 
perity brought  to  some  classes  of  the  population  by  the  war. 
In  the  next  season  the  loss  in  subscriptions  was  much  larger 


378  A  GERMAN  BOYCOTT  OF  AMERICA 

owing  to  the  departure  from  the  city  of  many  subscribers 
and  the  loss  by  death  suffered  in  the  families  of  the  wealthy 
supporters  of  the  institution. 

A  change,  however,  was  impending,  and  though  it  may 
have  had  no  influence  upon  either  management  or  public  an 
incident,  the  first  in  the  summer  which  followed  the  entrance 
of  the  United  States  into  the  war,  to  which  public  attention 
was  drawn  deserves  to  be  recalled  here,  if  for  no  other 
reason  than  to  throw  light  upon  that  strange  thing  called 
German  psychology,  which  came  up  often  for  discussion  in 
the  progress  of  German  military  and  diplomatic  methods. 

While  Mr.  Gatti  was  resting  in  undisturbed  contempla- 
tion of  a  coming  season  like  that  which  had  ended  in  April, 
1917,  there  came  an  intimation  that  Germany  was  prepar- 
ing to  prevent  her  singers  from  having  that  "  place  in  the 
sun  "  which  engagements  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House 
offered  them.  In  the  first  days  of  June  of  that  year  there 
was  a  meeting  of  the  German  Stage  Society,  as  the  cable 
dispatches  described  it,  at  which  without  a  dissenting  vote  a 
resolution  offered  by  Count  Seebach,  director  of  the  Royal 
Theater  at  Dresden,  was  unanimously  adopted  which  bound 
the  members  of  the  society  to  grant  no  leave  of  absence  to 
any  singer  who  wished  to  go  to  America  and  not  to  engage 
any  singer  who  accepted  an  American  contract,  the  agree- 
ment to  last  for  five  years.  The  action,  Count  Seebach  said, 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  war,  but  was  only  a  measure  of 
self-protection  on  the  part  of  German  theaters.  In  fact,  he 
professed  to  want  it  understood  as  directed  against  German 
artists  rather  than  American  managers.  It  was  intolerable, 
he  said,  that  German  artists  after  having  been  trained  in  their 
own  country  should  at  the  maturity  of  their  powers  make 
themselves  over  to  American  contractors,  spend  their  best 
years  abroad,  and  come  back  to  Germany  with  an  accession 
of  conceit  as  well,  I  suppose,  of  dollars.  Artists  should 
therefore  be  compelled  to  chose  between  America  and  Ger- 
many. Frankly  he  admitted  that  no  injury  could  result  to 


. \RTTK     1)01).  \\XKV 
Conductor  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera   1  louse 


AMERICA'S  ATTITUDE  TOWARD  GERMANY         379 

German  influence  in  America,  for  Germany  no  longer  had 
any  influence  there  and  it  would  be  vain  to  try  to  win 
Americans  by  civilities  and  sentimentalities. 

There  had  not  as  yet  been  the  slightest  exhibition  of  hos- 
tility toward  German  art  in  America,  and  the  German  sing- 
ers were  as  indifferent  as  was  the  management  of  the 
Metropolitan  to  the  Berlin  pronunciamento.  Mr.  Edward 
Ziegler,  the  executive  secretary  of  the  Metropolitan  Com- 
pany, declared  the  action  to  be  purely  academic,  inasmuch 
as  it  did  not  affect  the  German  singers  of  the  company 
whose  contracts  had  not  expired  while  those  whose  con- 
tracts had  expired  would  be  glad  to  renew  them,  since  they 
would  be  unable  to  return  to  their  homes  so  long  as  the  war 
lasted. 

The  matter  was  left  to  repose  on  the  knees  of  the  gods, 
and  there  it  still  lies.  I  recall  the  incident  partly  to  indi- 
cate how  liberal  was  the  American  attitude  toward  the 
German  operas  and  German  singers,  as  late  as  two  months 
after  the  United  States  had  formally  declared  that  a  state 
of  war  existed  between  herself  and  Germany  and  because  I 
want  to  tell  the  story  of  a  boycott  similar  to  that  declared 
by  the  German  managers  against  German  singers  who  came 
to  New  York  and  its  consequences  thirty  years  before.  If 
the  tale  is  not  particularly  relevant  to  the  present  history,  it 
is  at  least  diverting  and  somewhat  illuminative  of  the  ethics 
of  German  managers.  It  was  an  open  secret  during  the 
seven  years  of  the  German  regime  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  that  though  the  laws  of  the  German  Cartell- 
verband  were  stringent  as  against  the  breaking  of  contracts 
singers  who  wanted  to  accept  engagements  in  New  York 
found  no  difficulty  in  doing  so.  Mr.  Edmund  Stanton,  who 
acted  for  the  owners  of  the  Metropolitan,  had  a  plan 
which  worked  to  a  charm.  He  engaged  the  singers  from  the 
Intendanten  and  Dircktorcn,  royal  and  municipal  officials, 
direct,  and  paid  salaries  of  such  generous  proportions  that 
the  officials  could  retain  a  large  percentage  for  themselves 


380  DIPLOMATIC  DRAW-POKER 

and  yet  leave  the  lure  large  enough  to  attract  the  singers 
that  Mr.  Stanton  wanted.  Only  two  of  the  singers  ever  suf- 
fered in  consequence.  Emil  Fischer,  the  original  represen- 
tative of  Hans  Sachs  in  America  (and,  as  old  admirers  of 
"Die  Meistersinger  "  think,  the  best),  who  spent  his  last 
years  in  New  York,  was  engaged  by  Mr.  Stanton  before  his 
plan  had  been  evolved.  He  had  to  begin  legal  proceedings 
against  the  King  of  Saxony  when  on  his  return  to  Germany 
he  sought  reinstatement  as  a  member  of  the  Court  Theater 
at  Dresden.  Whether  or  not  he  won  his  case  I  do  not  re- 
member, but  our  opera  having  been  Italianized  he  became  a 
theater  manager  in  Holland  until  he  felt  again  the  irresistible 
call  to  New  York.  Mme.  Lilli  Lehmann  broke  her  contract 
with  the  Royal  Opera  at  Berlin  and  of  her  own  volition  paid 
the  prescribed  penalty,  or  conventional  Strafe.  Neverthe- 
less she  was  boycotted  by  the  Cartellverband  for  several 
years  until  the  Royal  Intendant  found  that  the  Opera's 
need  of  her  was  greater  than  her  need  of  the  Opera. 

Apropos  of  Mr.  Stanton's  methods,  it  used  to  be  told  with 
amusement  by  some  of  the  inner  brotherhood  in  the  days  of 
the  German  regime  that  the  American  director,  in  order  to 
become  persona  grata  to  his  German  confreres,  used  to  play 
draw-poker  with  them  with  an  understanding  between  him- 
self and  his  American'  companions,  who  were  also  asso- 
ciates in  the  New  York  enterprise,  to  permit  themselves  to 
be  bluffed  out  by  their  adversaries  or  to  bet  heavily  on  weak 
hands.  It  was  some  time  before  Mr.  Stanton  learned  that 
Count  Perfall,  of  Munich,  was  as  keen  a  hand  at  the  game 
as  any  of  the  Americans  and  could  hold  his  own  in  the 
winning  without  having  the  latter  generously  throw  the 
game  to  him.  They  only  added  to  the  percentage  which 
came  his  way  when  the  contracts  were  signed. 

Considering  the  popular  indignation  at  the  manner  in 
which  Germany,  arrogantly  confident  of  victory,  conducted 
her  warfare  from  the  beginning  of  hostilities  it  is  almost 
inconceivable  now  that  the  public  permitted  three  seasons  to 


THE  ABSENCE  OF  CHAUVINISM  381 

pass  by  without  a  word  of  protest  against  the  artistic  policy 
of  the  management.  It  is  a  record  of  honor.  Not  even  the 
unparalleled  outrage  against  humanity  exemplified  in  the 
sinking  of  the  steamship  Lusitania  with  her  hundreds  of 
innocent  men,  women,  and  children  created  a  chauvinistic 
feeling  among  the  music-lovers  against  German  art.  It  was 
not  for  want  of  patriotism.  That  fact  was  made  plain  by  a 
demonstration  which  followed  the  receipt  of  the  intelligence 
that  the  President  of  the  United  States  had  asked  Congress 
to  take  action  recognizing  that  a  state  of  war  existed  be- 
tween Germany  and  the  United  States.  The  news  was 
brought  into  the  audience-room  of  the  opera  house  in  the 
midst  of  a  performance  of  "  The  Canterbury  Pilgrims."  It 
came  just  before  the  third  act.  Immediately  a  wave  of 
excitement  rose  which  quickly  ran  through  the  audience  and 
broke  in  a  foaming  crest  when  the  orchestra,  conducted  by 
Mr.  Bodanzky,  played  the  melody  of  "  The  Star-Spangled 
Banner."  Mr.  James  W.  Gerard,  who,  as  ambassador  at 
the  Kaiser's  court,  had  heard  the  threat  of  the  unspeakable 
Hohenzollern  that  after  he  had  finished  with  his  then 
enemies  he  would  "  have  no  more  nonsense  from  the  United 
States,"  arose  in  a  box  and  called  for  cheers  for  the  Presi- 
dent. They  were  given  with  a  roar  and  followed  by  cheers 
for  the  American  army  and  navy  and  calls  for  "  La  Mar- 
seillaise." Mme.  Ober,  who  had  come  on  the  stage  in  the 
character  of  The  Woman  of  Bath,  was  overcome  with  emo- 
tion and  had  to  be  carried  off  the  stage  by  her  German  col- 
league, Johannes  Sembach,  who  was  impersonating  Chau- 
cer. Yet  on  the  afternoon  of  Good  Friday,  April  6,  when 
Congress  adopted  the  momentous  resolution  which  eventu- 
ally sealed  the  fate  of  Germany,  Wagner's  "  Parsifal "  was 
listened  to  as  decorously  and  reverently  as  ever  it  had  been 
and  within  the  few  remaining  days  of  the  season  there  were 
representations  of  "  Die  Meistersinger,"  "  Tristan  und 
Isolde,"  and  "  Iphigenia  auf  Tauris  "  which  awakened  not 
a  word  of  protest. 


382        GERMAN  SINGERS  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN 

The  nation  was  seething  with  excitement,  but  the  season 
of  1916-17  closed  with  an  unofficial  announcement  that  in 
1917-18  German  opera  would  again  be  in  the  repertory  and 
be  sung  by  German  singers  in  the  language  native  to  them 
and  the  works.  Against  the  first  contention  I  could  then 
feel  no  desire  to  raise  a  voice  of  objection ;  nor  do  I  now. 
It  was  in  accord  with  American  notions  of  fair  play  as  well 
as  with  the  lofty  artistic  principles  which  had  always  been 
professed  and  to  a  large  extent  practised  at  the  Metropoli- 
tan Opera  House,  that  the  beautiful  and  good  in  art  had 
neither  geographical  nor  political  boundaries.  That  German 
art  should  be  recognized  as  generously  as  Italian  (though  it 
never  had  been),  and  as  French,  English,  and  American 
ought  to  be,  seemed  obvious  to  every  fair-minded  lover  of 
music.  There  had  never  been  a  spirit  of  artistic  chauvinism 
in  the  United  States,  nor  did  there  seem  to  be  a  place  for 
it  in  a  nation  which  in  matter  if  not  in  spirit  represented  an 
amalgam  of  all  the  peoples  of  the  civilized  world.  The  plan 
which  gave  recognition  to  all  schools  of  composition  and 
presented  their  products  so  far  as  possible  in  the  languages 
in  which  they  were  created  seemed  not  only  wise  but  even 
imperative  in  an  institution  of  such  magnitude  and  dignity 
as  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company. 

But  now  the  question  arose :  did  a  liberal  policy  toward 
German  art  as  exemplified  in  its  creations  carry  with  it  a 
continued  obligation  to  German  artists  who  were  become 
alien  enemies?  As  a  rule  the  conduct  of  the  members  of  the 
German  contingent  in  the  Metropolitan  company  had  been 
unexceptionable  during  the  period  of  the  country's  neu- 
trality. There  were  exceptions,  and  around  two  of  these  a 
storm  had  blown  up  before  the  United  States  had  become  a 
belligerent  country.  One  of  these  was  Mme.  Gadski.  Her 
husband,  Hans  Tauscher,  who,  during  her  many  years  of 
service  at  the  Opera  (she  had  come  to  America  to  join  Mr. 
Walter  Damrosch's  company  in  1895  and  had  belonged  to 
the  Metropolitan  forces  since  1900-01),  had  been  an  active 


MME.  GADSKI'S  HUSBAND  383 

agent  of  German  manufacturers  of  military  arms — the  Mau- 
ser and  Krupp  companies.    Tauscher  had  been  an  officer  in 
the  German  army,  but  was  obliged  to  resign  his  commission 
by  reason  of  having  married  a  woman  of  the  stage  con- 
trary to  the  German  military  rules,  or  the  etiquette  of  the 
German  military  courts.     His  relation  to  the  German  army 
after  that  was  that  of  a  reservist.    At  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  he  was  in  Germany  and,  as  he  told  his  friends  in  New 
York,  had  immediately  offered  his  military  services  to  his 
country,  but  they  had  been  declined  because  he  could  be 
of  greater  service  in  another,  and  unexplained,   capacity. 
Earlier  than  in  any  preceding  year  he  appeared  in  New 
York,  having  escaped  capture  by  the  British  by  sailing  as  a 
minor  officer  on  a  Dutch  steamship.     In  the  summer  of 
1916  he  was  arrested  by  officers  of  the  Secret  Service  of  the 
United  States  on  the  charge  of  having  violated  the  laws  of 
the  country  in  conspiring  with  agents  of  the  German  Gov- 
ernment to  wreck  the  Welland  Canal.    On  his  trial  General 
Crozier,  Chief  of  Ordnance  of  the  United  States  Army,  was 
guilty  of  the  amazing  indiscretion,  to  make  use  of  mild  and 
diplomatic   language,    of    sending   a   letter   to    the    Federal 
Judge  who  was  trying  his  case.    The  letter  was  ruled  out  as 
incompetent  evidence  (it  was  a  certificate  of  character)  but 
not  until  after  it  had  been  read  to  the  jury.    Two  of  General 
Crozier's  aides  also  testified  to  the  general  good  character 
of  the  prisoner,  and  Tauscher  was  acquitted.     Nevertheless 
the  prosecuting  attorney  of  the  United   States  denounced 
him  in  open  court  as  one  who  had  escaped  punishment  be- 
cause of  the  credulity  of  the  jury  that  had  tried  the  case. 
Protests  against  Mme.  Gadski's  appearance  at  the  Opera 
poured  in  to  the  management  and  the  newspapers.     She 
continued  her  activities,  however,  appearing  at  the  Opera 
for  the  last  time  on  April  13,  a  week  after  the  United  States 
had  entered  the  war,  and  was  cordially  greeted  at  her  fare- 
well  performance,    which    was    in    "  Tristan    und    Isolde." 
When  Count  von  Bernsdorff,  Germany's  ambassador  to  the 


384        CONSIDERATION  FOR  AMERICAN  SINGERS 

United  States,  having  received  his  passports,  sailed  for 
Europe  Tauscher  sailed  with  him.  In  connection  with  an- 
other member  of  the  company  the  story  was  told  that  at  a 
convivial  gathering  on  New  Year's  Eve,  1916,  held  in  Mme. 
Gadski's  home  a  parody  on  a  popular  romance  from  "  Der 
Trompeter  von  Sakkingen  "  had  been  sung  containing  sar- 
castic allusions  to  the  fate  of  the  Americans  who  had  gone 
down  with  the  torpedoed  Lusitania. 

Mr.  Gatti  did  not  wait  till  the  end  of  the  season  before 
permitting  it  to  become  known  that  Mme.  Gadski  would  not 
be  a  member  of  the  next  season's  company,  but  his  inten- 
tion to   continue   an   unchanged  policy   with   reference  to 
repertory  and  singers   remained   unaltered.     While   I  be- 
lieved at  the  time,  and  still  believe,  that  there  should  be  no 
elimination  of  operas  from  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House 
simply  because  they  were  composed  by  Germans,  so  far  as 
the  recruiting  of  the  company  was  concerned  I  thought  that 
the  time  was  come  for  a  more  generous  treatment  of  native 
artists  than  had  been  hitherto  practised.    The  changed  con- 
ditions brought  about  by  the  war  had  placed  upon  the  man- 
agement an  obligation  toward  our  own  people  which,  if 
fulfilled,  might  advance  native  art  more  rapidly  than  any 
amount  of  listening  to  foreign  singers.     There  were  many 
American  artists  singing  in  German  theaters  in  the  early 
months  of  the  war,  because  they  found  there  opportunities 
to  gain  a  routine  in  their  profession  which  was  denied  them 
in   our  proud   establishment  accustomed   to   pick   what   it 
wanted  from  the  talent  of  the  world.    Many  of  these  sing- 
ers would  be  thrown  back  upon  our  shores  by  the  new 
conditions,   and   it  seemed  to  me  that  they  were  entitled 
to  consideration  to  the  full  amount  of  their  artistic  ability. 
By  recruiting  its  forces  from  these  artists  it  was  obvious  that 
the  way  would  be  paved  for  a  fitting  representation  of  Eng- 
lish and  American  operas  in  the  repertory.    When  the  con- 
test between  the  champions  of  Italian  and  German  opera 
was  raging  in  the  early  period  of  the  Metropolitan's  exist- 


FROM  GERMAN  OPERA  TO  ENGLISH  385 

ence,  The  Tribune  newspaper  stood  up  stoutly  in  favor  of 
the  German  form  of  the  art  not  because  of  a  want  of 
appreciation  of  Italian  and  French  art  but  because  it  saw  a 
needed  education  toward  seriousness  in  the  popular  attitude 
towards  the  lyric  drama  which  the  broader  and  more  cosmo- 
politan attitude  of  the  German  regime  then  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  owners  of  the  opera  house  themselves  would 
advance  but  which  a  one-sided  Italian  policy  would  not  pro- 
mote. It  also  saw  in  German  opera  a  bridge  over  which 
opera  in  the  vernacular  might  come  into  the  artistic  economy 
of  the  country.  In  a  retrospect  of  the  season  1888-89  I 
wrote : 

In  the  nature  of  things  the  United  States  must  soon  follow  the 
example  of  France,  Germany,  and  Russia  and  establish  a  national 
opera,  or  opera  which  like  the  drama  shall  use  the  vernacular. 
From  German  opera  to  opera  in  English,  the  step  is  feasible ;  from 
Italian  opera  dependent  on  compositions  which  have  no  consonance 
with  the  dramatic  taste  of  the  American  people  and  the  present 
time,  the  step  is  impossible.  Progress  in  the  arts  means  life: 
stagnation  means  death.  Music  in  America  must  strive  for  an  ideal 
in  which  the  impulses  and  feelings  of  the  American  people  can 
find  expression.  Operas  on  German  lines  will  build  a  road  to  that 
ideal ;  Italian  opera  will  open  a  chasm. 

In  the  murderous  struggle  in  progress  when  I  urged  the 
employment  of  native  singers  at  the  conclusion  of  the  sea- 
son of  1916-17,  I  saw  a  breaking-out  of  the  desire  of  peoples 
for  racial  and  national  expression  in  politics  and  govern- 
ment. It  had  been  preceded  by  strenuous  endeavor  on  the 
part  of  several  of  these  peoples,  notably  the  Russians,  to 
give  racial  expression  to  their  music  also.  It  seemed  im- 
perative that  the  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  should  per- 
ceive that  it  was  confronted  with  a  larger  duty  than  the 
maintenance  of  a  company,  no  matter  how  admirable,  of 
exclusively  foreign  artists,  and  yet  I  was  unwilling  to 
sacrifice  the  future  good  of  art  to  a  prejudice  against  a 
people  with  whom  we  were  at  war.  What  The  Tribune 


386      GROWING  ANTIPATHY  TO  GERMAN  THINGS 

printed  thirty  years  ago  was  a  glimpse  into  a  future  for 
which  the  vista  is  opening  now. 

I  resume  my  historical  narrative.  The  summer  of  1917 
wore  on,  and  though  a  growing  detestation  of  all  things  Ger- 
man became  more  and  more  manifest  there  were  still  no 
signs  of  ferment  indicating  a  change  of  attitude  towards 
art  or  artists  about  the  Opera  House  or  elsewhere.  From 
May  to  the  middle  of  October,  so  far  as  anything  of  real 
musical  significance  is  concerned,  New  York  enjoys  a  dead 
season.  Summer  concerts  of  many  kinds  there  are  in  pro- 
fusion, but  if  they  offer  much,  it  is  as  a  pleasant  stimulus  to 
the  enjoyment  of  the  people  who  flock  to  the  public  parks, 
the  recreation  piers,  and  other  places  for  which  generous 
provision  is  annually  made  by  the  municipality  and  the 
philanthropy  of  private  citizens.  As  the  time  for  the  open- 
ing of  the  concert  season  in  the  fall  of  1917  approached, 
however,  there  were  indications  that  the  feeling  of  liberal 
toleration  toward  music  and  musicians  of  Teutonic  origin 
was  giving  way  before  a  prejudice  which  eventually  became 
as  unreasonable  as  the  earlier  attitude  had  been  honorable 
and  amiable.  Some  of  the  means  used  to  stimulate  the 
prejudice  was  of  a  nature  which  I  shall  not  dignify  by 
either  definition  or  description.  The  first  manifestations  of 
this  feeling  that  attracted  more  than  local  attention  broke 
about  the  head  of  an  artist  who  had  enjoyed  popular 
favor  in  a  greater  measure  and  for  a  longer  period  than  any 
of  his  colleagues.  This  was  Mr.  Fritz  Kreisler,  the  violinist, 
and  the  reason,  no  doubt,  was  because  he,  an  Austrian, 
had  in  the  previous  year  served  for  a  brief  period  (and 
suffered  a  slight  wound)  in  the  military  service  of  his 
country.  The  circumstance  had  redounded  to  his  credit 
rather  than  against  him  in  the  season  of  1916-17.  Mr. 
Kreisler's  was  a  conspicuous  case  and  deserves  to  be  dis- 
cussed more  fully  than  others,  but,  after  all,  in  the  last 
instance  it  illustrated  a  changed  attitude  of  the  United 
States  toward  European  artists  in  general,  meaning  those 


THE  CASE  OF  FRITZ  KREISLER  387 

of  great  and  those  of  no  eminence.  As  soon  as  the  war 
broke  out  the  United  States  was  called  upon  not  only  to 
alleviate  want  and  suffering  among  the  warring  peoples  but 
also  to  give  hospitality  and  support  to  a  horde  of  invading 
musicians,  performers,  singers,  and  teachers  who  had 
hitherto  earned  their  livelihood  in  Europe.  What  was  at 
first  looked  upon  as  a  temporary  haven  had  now  become  the 
home  of  hundreds,  not  to  say  thousands,  who  were  not 
likely  to  return  to  their  devastated  and  impoverished  homes 
for  a  long  time  at  least.  Whether  their  sojourn  was  to  work 
for  the  cultural  good  of  America  was  a  question  not  to  be 
answered  in  the  summer  of  1917  and  not  to  be  answered 
yet.  N 

The  fact  that  a  large  number  of  foreign  -virtuosi  of  high 
rank  took  up  a  residence  in  this  country  in  1914  and  re- 
mained here  was  not  looked  upon  with  disfavor  at  the 
time,  though  it  was  feared  that  it  would  lead  to  a  plethora 
of  concerts  which  might  militate  to  some  extent  against 
their  educational  value.  The  apprehension  was  fulfilled,  and 
there  is  no  gratification  to  be  derived  from  the  fact  that 
some  of  those  who  have  intrenched  themselves  here  bear 
Slavic  instead  of  Germanic  names.  Their  names  and  their 
willingness  to  crook  the  pregnant  hinges  of  the  knee  that 
thrift  might  follow  fawning  distinguished  them  from  the 
Austrian  Kreisler;  but  not  to  his  discredit.  The  storm  of 
opposition,  as  I  have  said,  broke  first  over  Mr.  Kreisler. 
Whether  or  not  he  should  be  permitted  to  play  before  a 
club  in  Sewickley,  Penn.,  kept  the  people  of  that  suburb 
of  Pittsburgh  and  Pittsburgh  itself  in  a  ferment  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  summer  of  1917.  The  concert  was  can- 
celed and  in  Pittsburgh  the  Director  of  Public  Safety  called 
on  the  chief  of  police  to  prohibit  a  concert  which  was  to 
be  given  there.  Trouble  arose  in  other  cities,  and  Mr. 
Kreisler,  acting  with  commendable  dignity  and  frankness, 
canceled  all  the  concerts  for  which  he  had  been  booked 
except  those  which  had  charitable  objects.  Of  such  con- 


388  ATTITUDE  OF  OTHER  FOREIGNERS 

certs,  it  may  be  well  to  state  there  were  a  great  many  in  the 
ensuing  season,  as  there  had  been  in  the  preceding,  since  it 
was  found  easy  to  throw  the  cloak  of  charity  over  many 
an  enterprise  in  which  selfish  purpose  was  disguised  as 
patriotism.  Especially  was  this  the  case  after  the  imposition 
by  the  Government  of  the  United  States  of  a  war  tax  of 
ten  per  cent,  upon  the  price  of  all  tickets  of  admission  to 
places  of  amusement.  Concerning  this  more  presently. 
After  the  belated  declaration  of  war  against  Austria  Mr. 
Kreisler  publicly  stated  that  he  asked  no  consideration  be- 
yond that  to  which  he  was  entitled  as  a  well-behaved  alien 
enemy.  I  am  far  from  contending  that  he  should  have 
been  permitted  to  continue  his  career  as  a  concert-giver, 
but  am  giving  unusual  attention  to  his  case  partly  because 
it  was  the  first  that  excited  wide  public  notice,  and  partly 
because  during  the  period  of  excitement  which  culminated 
in  action  directly  connected  with  the  history  of  opera  in 
New  York  he  conducted  himself  with  decorum  and  dignity, 
showing  no  rancor  when  the  treatment  which  he  received 
from  the  newspapers  and  even  the  pulpit  compelled  him  to 
withdraw  from  his  projected  charity  concerts.  He  thus 
preserved  his  self-respect  and  the  respect  of  all  his  friends 
and  many  of  his  political  enemies. 

This  is  more  than  can  be  said  for  all  other  foreign 
artists  who  found  themselves  similarly  situated.  Mr.  Josef 
Stransky,  conductor  of  the  Philharmonic  Society  of  New 
York,  soon  found  himself  and  his  society  in  the  vortex  of 
a  storm.  He  too  was  an  Austrian  subject,  and  there  were 
musicians  in  his  orchestra  who  had  never  become  American 
citizens  by  naturalization.  Mr.  Stransky  weathered  the 
gale.  The  orchestra  was  purged  of  its  alien-enemy  ele- 
ment ;  the  Musical  Union  of  New  York  impeached  and 
deposed  its  German  president ;  Mr.  Stransky  defended  him- 
self against  attacks  made  against  his  loyalty  to  the  United 
States  by  public  proclamation  of  the  fact  that  he  had  opened 
the  series  of  Philharmonic  Concerts  with  a  performance  of 


KUNWALD  AND  MUCK  389 

"  The  Star-Spangled  Banner,"  which,  without  official  sanc- 
tion, had  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  national  anthem; 
that  he  was  a  Bohemian  of  Czecho-Slavic  parentage;  that 
Bohemia  was  favorable  to  the  Allies  and  righting  for  her 
independence ;  that  he  had  renounced  his  native  country 
and  declared  his  intention  to  become  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States ;  that  he  had  given  his  services  to  war  charities,  etc., 
etc.  He  held  his  position  and  though  he  did  not  eliminate 
the  music  of  the  German  classics  from  his  programmes,  he 
placed  a  tabu  upon  the  music  of  living  German  composers. 
Dr.  Ernst  Kunwald,  conductor  of  the  Cincinnati  Symphony 
Orchestra,  was  less  diplomatic.  He,  too,  was  an  Austrian, 
and  I  believe  had  served  in  the  Austrian  army  before  com- 
ing to  this  country.  He  fell  under  suspicion,  and  was  ar- 
rested by  officers  of  the  United  States  Government  in  De- 
cember, 1917,  freed  for  a  time,  but  rearrested  in  January, 
1918,  and  condemned  to  internment  at  Fort  Oglethorpe, 
Ga.,  during  the  period  of  the  war. 

The  evidence  on  which  Dr.  Kunwald  was  imprisoned 
was  never  divulged ;  neither  was  that  which  sent  Dr.  Karl 
Muck,  who  had  been  conductor  of  the  Boston  Symphony 
Orchestra  since  the  fall  of  1912,  to  be  his  companion.  Dr. 
Muck's  case  caused  the  greater  sensation  because  of  its 
graver  consequences  and  the  length  of  time  within  which  it 
was  kept  before  the  public  mind.  Dr.  Muck's  troubles,  in- 
deed, began  almost  as  early  as  those  of  Mr.  Kreisler.  At  the 
first  concert  of  1917-18  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  a  request  was 
handed  to  the  manager  of  the  orchestra,  Mr.  Charles  A. 
Ellis,  that  the  music  begin  with  a  performance  of  "  The 
Star-Spangled  Banner."  Mr.  Ellis  compared  the  list  of 
signatures,  that  of  representative  women  of  the  city,  with 
a  list  of  subscribers,  and  finding  few  if  any  of  them  there, 
took  it  upon  himself  to  ignore  the  request.  Intelligence  of 
the  incident  was  sent  broadcast  throughout  the  country  at 
once.  A  storm  blew  up  which  was  measurably  appeased 
by  the  fact  that  at  the  next  concert  in  Boston  and  at  every 


390  THE  BOSTON  CONDUCTOR  INTERNED 

concert  thereafter  the  patriotic  music  was  played  under 
the  guidance  of  the  conductor.  Stories  of  Dr.  Muck's  in- 
tense Germanism  pursued  him,  however,  and  were  not  nul- 
lified by  an  attempt  on  his  part  to  take  refuge  behind  an 
old  certificate  of  Swiss  citizenship.  The  regular  concerts 
were  given  in  Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  other 
cities,  but  a  score  of  the  members  of  the  orchestra  were 
Germans,  and  citizens  of  the  enemy  country  being  pro- 
hibited from  entering  the  national  capital  the  concerts 
usually  given  there  had  to  be  abandoned.  A  concert  booked 
for  Chicago  was  also  canceled.  The  protests  against  the 
presence  of  Dr.  Muck  in  New  York  became  very  vigorous 
when  the  last  two  concerts  of  the  season  were  reached,  and 
though  they  resulted  only  in  creating  counter  demonstra- 
tions for  him,  Major  Higginson,  who  had  founded  the  or- 
chestra and  maintained  it  for  nearly  a  generation,  in  the 
following  summer  turned  it  over  to  a  body  of  trustees.  He 
had  been  obliged  to  accept  the  inevitable,  for  though  he  had 
stoutly  refused  to  believe  that  Dr.  Muck  had  in  any  way 
violated  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  he  was  permitted 
to  examine  some  documentary  evidence  which  had  con- 
vinced the  Department  of  Justice  that  his  conductor  was 
a  dangerous  alien  and  had  been  subjected  to  the  humilia- 
tion of  seeing  the  man,  whose  cause  he  had  manfully  cham- 
pioned, arrested  on  March  25,  1918,  and  sent  to  Fort  Ogle- 
thorpe  for  internment.  Needless  to  say  the  staunch  pa- 
triotism of  Major  Higginson  was  never  in  question  for  a 
moment. 

A  few  more  words  must  be  added  to  the  history  of  the 
concert  season  before  the  operatic  record  is  taken  up  and 
the  story  of  its  external  features  completed.  On  November 
I,  1917,  there  went  into  effect  a  federal  law  which  imposed 
a  tax  on  tickets  for  amusements.  A  fear  that  this  tax 
would  work  havoc  in  the  concert-field  was  not  realized. 
The  field  had  been  greatly  overworked  in  the  years  im- 
mediately preceding  and  continued  to  be  overworked  down 


A  WAR  TAX  AND  ITS  EFFECTS  391 

to  the  end  of  1917-18,  which  marks  the  conclusion  of  these 
studies.  In  the  department  of  recitals  by  singers  and  in- 
strumentalists the  maintenance  of  the  plethora  was  not 
difficult  of  explanation.  Concerts  by  newcomers  in  New 
York  are  largely  advertising  affairs.  Those  who  give  them 
in  the  great  majority  of  cases  seek  to  get  metropolitan  pub- 
licity for  exploitation  in  other  localities.  Audiences  and 
newspaper  notices  are  essential  to  them.  The  former  are 
secured  by  the  distribution  of  free  tickets.  The  fear  jus- 
tified by  the  nature  of  the  habitual  "  dead-head  "  that  such 
audiences  would  not  be  willing  to  pay  even  the  tax  of  ten 
per  cent,  on  the  price  of  the  tickets  was  overcome  to  a 
great  extent  by  the  device  of  having  the  tax  paid  by  the 
concert-giver.  It  added  to  the  cost  of  the  advertisement — 
that  was  all.  Upon  the  public  the  tax  was  not  felt  as  a 
burden  except  in  the  case  of  artists  of  established  reputa- 
tion and  undoubted  merit.  In  cases  where  subscriptions 
had  been  paid  for  series  of  concerts  and  for  the  opera  be- 
fore the  tax  law  had  been  enacted  the  tax  was  paid  in 
advance  by  the  management  and,  where  the  justice  of  such 
a  course  was  obvious,  collected  from  the  government  in  the 
form  of  a  rebate. 

The  feeling  of  intolerance  toward  German  music  and 
musicians  was  apparent  in  the  concert-rooms  before  public 
recognition  of  it  was  reflected  in  any  action  by  the  directors 
of  the  Opera  Company.  A  great  many  singers  quickly 
banished  all  German  songs  from  their  programmes ;  others 
sang  the  songs  in  English  translations.  Local  orchestras 
in  some  of  the  small  cities  eliminated  the  music  of  even 
the  classics,  and  this  folly  which  could  but  result  in  the  de- 
basement of  taste  found  some  men  and  women,  fortunately 
not  many,  who  justified  it.  As  if  the  music  of  Haydn,  Mo- 
zart, Schubert,  Schumann,  Brahms,  and  Wagner,  all  dead 
long  before  the  war  was  even  a  dream  in  the  wicked  minds 
of  the  German  rulers  and  people,  could  in  any  wise  be 
connected  with  the  authors  of  the  most  monstrous  crime 


392  LIVING  GERMAN  COMPOSERS  TABOOED 

of  a  millennium.  In  January,  1918,  the  Philharmonic  So- 
ciety, finding  it  doubly  desirable  to  repair  fortunes  already 
somewhat  decayed  and  now  threatened  by  the  controversy 
over  its  conductor,  proclaimed  a  policy  which  left  the 
classic  repertory  intact  but  eliminated  the  compositions  of 
living  German  composers.  This  seemed  a  proper  expedient 
and  one  akin  with  the  proscription  of  German  singers  at 
the  Metropolitan  Opera,  of  which  I  am  now  called  upon 
to  speak. 

During  the  rising  tide  of  anti-German  feeling  in  the 
summer  and  early  autumn  of  1917,  no  suggestion  of  a 
change  of  policy  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  found 
record  in  the  newspaper  press  so  far  as  I  know.  If  there 
was  any  thought  of  a  possible  impending  change  in  the 
minds  of  the  directors,  which  must  have  been  actively  oc- 
cupied with  the  subject,  it  was  scarcely  discernible  in  the 
prospectus  for  the  approaching  season,  which  was  pub- 
lished, as  usual,  about  the  middle  of  September.  There 
was,  indeed,  in  the  document  an  absence  of  emphasis  upon 
the  subject  of  the  German  repertory ;  but  to  that  the  public 
were  accustomed.  The  prospectus  called  attention  to  the 
proposed  production  of  two  American  works  (an  opera, 
"  Shanewis,"  and  a  ballet,  "  The  Dance  in  Place  Congo,"  by 
Henry  F.  Gilbert)  and  also  of  Liszt's  oratorio  "  St.  Eliza- 
beth," which  was  to  be  given  in  the  form  of  an  opera  in 
English ;  but  mention  was  made  of  the  retention  of  a  stage- 
manager  for  the  German  repertory,  all  the  familiar  German 
names  appeared  in  the  list  of  singers  and  the  list  of  operas 
contained  all  those  of  Wagner  which  had  been  strong  props 
of  the  repertory  for  many  years. 

Ten  days  before  the  opening  of  the  season  of  1917-18 
the  directors  made  it  known  to  the  public  that  there  would 
be  no  German  performances.  This  decision  had  not  been 
arrived  at  hastily,  but  after  ample  discussion  prompted  by 
a  study  of  public  opinion.  When  the  fact  was  announced 
in  the  newspapers  of  November  2,  1917,  it  was  given  out 


CHARLES  WAKEFIELD  CABMAN 
Composer  of  "Shanewis" 


MELANIE  KURT 
In   '"Fidelio" 


GERMAN  PERFORMANCES  ABOLISHED  393 

that  the  decision  was  not  of  recent  date  nor  had  it  been  in- 
fluenced by  the  recent  experience  of  the  Boston  Symphony 
Orchestra  at  Providence.  The  directors,  it  was  said,  had 
reached  the  conclusion  that  to  continue  the  giving  of  Ger- 
man opera  might  hearten  the  people  of  Germany  because 
of  the  exaggerations  with  which  the  story  of  the  German 
performances  might  be  accompanied.  Such  a  risk,  however 
remote,  the  directors  did  not  intend  to  take.  Nothing  was 
said  about  any  German  operas  in  particular,  but  the  brief 
announcement  was  made  that  when  the  repertory  of  the 
opening  week  should  be  announced  the  public  might  rest 
assured  that  it  would  contain  "  nothing  that  could  cause 
the  least  offense  to  the  most  patriotic  Americans."  A  fort- 
night later  it  became  known  that  the  general  manager  had 
canceled  the  contracts  with  Margarete  Ober,  Melanie  Kurt, 
Johannes  Sembach,  Carl  Braun,  and  Hermann  Weil — all 
singers  engaged  for  the  performance  of  German  operas. 
The  contracts  with  these  artists  contained  a  clause  that 
they  might  be  abrogated  "  by  reason  of  war,  fire,  flood,  epi- 
demic, or  any  other  act  of  God  " — a  familiar  formula  in 
contractual  obligations.  Mme.  Ober's  contract  was  said  to 
have  been  modified  by  correspondence  after  its  signing,  and 
she  therefore  stood  in  a  somewhat  different  relation  towards 
the  Opera  Company  than  her  companions.  However  this 
may  be,  she  began  legal  proceedings  against  the  company 
for  damages  and  the  case  was  settled  by  agreement  out  of 
court  a  little  more  than  a  year  afterwards.  Mme.  Gadski's 
contract  had  not  been  renewed.  She  was  permitted  to  re- 
main in  the  country  after  the  departure  of  her  husband. 
She  kept  herself  in  the  public  eye  for  a  space,  sang  at  a 
celebration  of  the  anniversary  of  Luther's  birth  in  New 
York,  also  at  a  concert  of  the  German  Mannergesangverein 
Arion,  and  then  so  far  as  New  York  was  concerned  went 
into  silence.  Four  of  the  men  singers  whose  usefulness  at 
the  opera  had  ended  formed  a  concert  organization  and 
in  seeking  to  promote  their  own  interests  by  giving  con- 


394  CHICAGO  AS  A  RIVAL  OF  NEW  YORK 

certs  did  more  to  perpetuate  a  prejudice  against  German 
music,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  than  did  the  misguided  and 
narrow-minded  patriots  who  kept  up  an  agitation  against 
the  German  classics  and  tried,  in  vain,  to  put  the  United 
States  on  a  lower  scale  of  intelligence  than  France,  where 
there  was  no  cessation  of  the  performance  of  the  German 
classics,  or  England,  where  Wagner's  dramas  held  their 
own  in  the  repertory  albeit  in  English  versions  of  the 
texts. 

There  was  a  visit  to  New  York  in  the  season  of  1917-18 
by  the  Chicago  Opera  Company,  which  came  not  in  its 
old  affiliatory  relationship  but  as  an  energetic  rival.  To  it 
under  the  circumstances  I  must  devote  a  little  more  space 
than  I  would  feel  disposed  to  give  an  ordinary  itinerant 
troupe.  Taking  time  by  the  forelock  Mr.  Cleofonte  Cam- 
panini  caused  the  concluding  strains  of  the  Metropolitan 
season  of  1916-17  to  commingle  with  the  announcement 
that  he  had  leased  the  Lexington  Theater  "  for  a  year  "  in 
order  that  he  might  produce  grand  opera  in  it  for  four 
weeks  in  the  next  season.  In  a  spirit  of  magnanimity  he 
added :  "  I  do  not  wish  to  crush  the  Metropolitan ;  I  am 
coming  to  develop  my  own  season."  The  explanation  of  this 
remark  was  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  it  had  been  recog- 
nized that  Chicago  was  unable  to  support  a  season  of  more 
than  ten  weeks  and  that  inasmuch  as  it  was  not  practicable 
to  make  contracts  for  singers  of  such  short  duration  it  was 
necessary  to  add  a  month's  performances  in  New  York  and 
a  fortnight's  in  Boston  to  make  the  existence  of  the  Chicago 
company  possible.  He  set  his  prices  of  admission  at  the 
same  rate  as  those  of  the  Metropolitan  and  continued  in 
effect  the  same  policy  that  had  been  made  familiar  by  Mr. 
Hammerstein  years  before.  Miss  Mary  Garden  was  his 
chief  reliance,  though  he  found  a  more  potent  attraction 
in  Mme.  Galli-Curci,  concerning  whom  much  ado,  not  al- 
together unjustified,  was  made.  She  had  made  a  modest 
effort  to  enter  Mr.  Gatti's  forces  before  going  to  Chicago 


ROSA  RAISA 

Of  the  Chicago  Opera  Company 
as  Aida 


395 

and  turned  out  to  be  the  subject  of  a  sensational  episode 
even  greater  than  that  which  had  attended  the  coming  of 
Mme.  Tetrazzini  to  the  Manhattan  Opera  House.  Of  this 
something  more  may  be  said  later.  The  majority  of  Mr. 
Campanini's  singers  were  familiar  to  New  Yorkers  from 
the  old  Manhattan  days.  Among  them  were  Miss  Garden, 
Mme.  Louise  Berat,  Gustave  Huberdeau,  Charles  Dalmores, 
Hector  Dufranne,  and  Vittorio  Arimondi;  in  the  list  were 
also  Georges  Baklanoff,  and  Riccardo  Stracciari.  The 
season  began  on  January  23,  1917,  and  ended  on  February 
15,  1918.  The  operas  performed  were  "  Monna  Vanna," 
"  I  Giojelli  della  Madonna,"  "  Thais,"  "  Romeo  et  Juliette," 
"  Dinorah,"  "  Manon,"  "  A'ida  "  (in  which  a  fine  dramatic 
soprano,  Rosa  Raisa,  effected  her  debut),  "Lucia  di  Lam- 
mermoor,"  "  Faust "  (in  which  Mme.  Melba  effected  a 
re-entry  on  February  i),  "II  Barbiere  di  Siviglia," 
"Louise,"  "Le  Jongleur  de  Notre  Dame,"  "  Traviata," 
and  three  novelties,  viz.:  Mascagni's  "  Isabeau "  (Febru- 
ary 13,  1918),  Henry  Hadley's  "  Azora "  (January  28, 
1918),  and  Sylvio  Lazzari's  "  Le  Sauteriot "  (February 
n,  1918).  Not  one  of  the  novelties  excited  more  than  a 
modicum  of  interest,  although  there  was  a  pretty  general 
expression  of  astonishment  that  "  Isabeau  " — whose  story 
is  founded  upon  the  legend  of  Lady  Godiva  and  whose 
heroine  is  supposed  to  begin  and  end  her  famous  ride 
in  unconventional  costume  in  the  presence  of  the  pub- 
lic— was  not  among  M/ss  Garden's  list  but  was  permitted 
to  fall  to  the  lot  of  Miss  Raisa.  The  music  of  the  opera 
in  ,  n  attempt  to  give  expression  to  the  spirit  of  mediaeval 
chivalry  is  frequently  pompous  and  strident  only,  though 
much  superior  to  the  novelty  by  the  same  composer,  "  Lo- 
doletta,"  which  was  brought  out  as  if  in  opposition  at  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House.  The  story  of  "  Le  Sauteriot " 
was  taken  from  the  play  of  E.  de  Keyserling  by  Henri, 
Pierre  Roche,  and  Martial  Perrier.  Its  music,  by  a  native 
of  the  Italian  Tyrol  who  had  been  a  pupil  of  Guiraud  in 


396  MME.  GALLI-CURCI 

Paris,  was  found  to  contain  some  Slavic  elements  and  con- 
siderable charm  and  made  a  deeper  impression  than  that 
of  Mascagni.  "  Azora  "  had  a  story  of  ancient  Mexico  at 
its  base,  and  its  life  on  the  stage,  limited  to  a  single  per- 
formance, was  unusually  brief  even  for  an  American 
work. 

Concerning  the  artistic  merit  of  the  principal  women  of 
Mr.  Campanini's  company  I  am  the  less  disposed  to  make 
a  large  discussion  because  extravagant  eulogy  of  both 
filled  columns  of  the  newspapers  in  this  season  and  that 
which  followed.  To  the  class  of  opera-goers  and  com- 
mentators whose  experience  was  bounded  by  a  decade  or 
two  there  seemed  to  be  no  limit  to  the  admiration  to  which 
Miss  Garden  was  entitled  as  an  actress  and  Mme.  Galli- 
Curci  as  a  singer.  Characteristic  of  the  absence  of  a  stand- 
ard of  knowledge  based  on  knowledge,  experience,  and 
taste  was  the  constant  coupling  of  the  latter's  name  with 
that  of  Mme.  Adelina  Patti.  They  made  a  sorry  confes- 
sion of  unfitness  for  judgment  who  placed  the  two  singers 
on  a  plane — unfitness  by  reason  of  ignorance  of  what  Mme. 
Patti's  voice  and  art  had  been  and  want  of  knowledge 
concerning  the  art  of  vocalization  itself.  Mme.  Galli- 
Curci  is  a  delightful  singer,  with  so  beautiful  a  natural 
voice  and  such  exquisite  skill  that  she  deserves  high  ad- 
miration despite  a  woeful  blemish  in  her  art  which  obtruded 
itself  in  nearly  every  one  of  her  performances.  This 
blemish,  that  of  incorrect  intonation  (she  generally  sang 
flat  in  the  early  part  of  every  one  of  her  performances), 
seems  to  be  due  to  imperfect  training  rather  than  faulty 
instinct,  but  that  fact  neither  banished  nor  excused  it. 
More  than  that,  she  had  had  several  peers  as  a  lyric  artist 
within  the  memory  of  persons  whose  experience  is  meas- 
ured by  the  span  of  history  covered  by  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House,  while  Mme.  Patti  has  had  none.  Nilsson, 
Gerster,  Sembrich,  Melba — were  they  to  be  forgotten  be- 
cause rivalry  had  broken  out  between  the  Metropolitan  and 


Kol'.r.RTO     M()K. \\XO.\I 
(.'(inductor  at   the   Metropolitan   Opera    Mouse 


NEW  SINGERS  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN  397 

Chicago  companies?     That  seemed  to  be  a  popular  atti- 
tude. 

Few  names  of  new  singers  appeared  in  the  list  published 
in  the  prospectus  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  of  1917- 
18,  and  of  these  the  most  were  in  what  may  be  called  the 
junior  list.  The  most  significant  were  those  of  Florence 
Easton,  John  McCormack,  Hypolito  Lazaro,  a  tenor, 
Thomas  Chalmers,  a  baritone  who  had  won  favorable 
opinion  at  English  performances  with  the  Century  Com- 
pany, and  Jose  Mardones,  a  bass  who  came  from  the  wreck 
of  the  Boston  National  Opera  Company,  as  did  the  new 
Italian  conductor,  Roberto  Moranzoni.  Mme.  Easton,  of 
English  birth  and  an  artist  of  fine  stature,  was  among  the 
singers  of  foreign  birth  who  had  acquired  not  only  a  fine 
routine  which  stood  her  in  good  stead  but  also  made  an  en- 
viable reputation  at  the  Royal  Opera  in  Berlin  before  the 
war.  She  effected  her  debut  at  the  Metropolitan  in  "  Caval- 
leria  Rusticana "  on  December  7,  1917,  and  more  than 
held  her  own  against  rivals  established  in  favor  throughout 
the  season,  carrying  off  chief  honors,  such  as  they  were,  in 
Liszt's  "  St.  Elizabeth."  Mr.  McCormack,  who  had  be- 
come one  of  the  idols  of  the  concert-rooms  and  was  not 
new  to  the  opera,  sang  only  three  times — in  "  La  Boheme," 
"  Madama  Butterfly,"  and  "  Tosca."  Hypolito  Lazaro  sang 
for  the  first  time  at  the  Metropolitan  in  "  Rigoletto  "  on 
January  31,  1918.  Jose  Mardones,  who  proved  to  be  an 
admirably  serviceable  bass,  sang  often  during  the  season, 
the  first  time  on  the  opening  night  on  November  12,  as 
Ramfis  in  "Ai'da."  Signor  Moranzoni,  who  replaced  Gior- 
gio Palacco  as  principal  conductor  of  the  Italian  list,  was 
active  throughout  the  year.  Adolf  Bolm  was  specially  en- 
gaged to  supervise  the  production  of  Rimsky-Korsakow's 
brilliant  opera  "  Le  Coq  d'Or,"  which,  in  obedience  to  a 
foreign  precedent  which  I  can  not  pardon,  had  been  changed 
to  what  was  called  an  "  opera  pantomime,"  which  meant 
that  the  acting  was  done  by  one  set  of  artists  and  the  sing- 


398  M,  RABAUD'S  "MAROUF" 

ing  by  another.  A  governmental  order  which  commanded 
the  closing  of  all  places  of  amusement  on  Monday  nights 
was  liberally  construed  to  the  advantage  of  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  by  the  officials  in  Washington  (there  being 
no  Tuesday  performances)  and  did  not  interfere  with  the 
regular  sequence  of  subscription  representations. 

The  novelties  of  the  season  in  the  order  of  their  pro- 
duction were  "  Marouf  "  on  December  19;  "  St.  Elizabeth  " 
on  January  3  ;  Mascagni's  "  Lodoletta  "  on  January  12  ;  "  Le 
Coq  d'Or  "  on  March  6  ;  "  Shanewis  "  and  a  ballet,  "  The 
Dance  in  Place  Congo,"  on  March  23.  There  was.  a  re- 
vival of  Meyerbeer's  "  Le  Prophete  "  on  February  7.  Con- 
cerning each  of  these  incidents  comment  seems  imperative 
for  the  sake  of  the  integrity  of  this  critical  record,  though 
they  were  of  very  unequal  artistic  importance.  I  take 
them  up  in,  their  order  : 

"  Marouf,"  an  opera  comique  in  four  acts  and  five  scenes, 
has  for  the  author  of  its  libretto  Lucien  Nepoty  and  for  its 
composer  Henri  Rabaud,  with  whom  the  lovers  of  serious 
music  in  the  Eastern  cities  of  the  country  made  excellent 
acquaintance  a  year  later  when  he  came  to  the  United 
States  as  conductor  of  the  Boston  Symphony  Orchestra. 
The  performance  was  conducted  by  Pierre  Monteux,  also 
a  newcomer,  and  the  cast  was  as  follows: 

Marouf  .......................................  Giuseppe  de  Luca 

The  Princess  ......................................   Frances  Alda 

The  Sultan    .......................................    Leon   Rothier 

Fatimah   ......................................    Kathleen  Howard 

The  Vizier  ................................   Andreas  de  Segurola 

AH   ...........................................    Thomas  Chalmers 

A  Pastry  Cook  ................................  Robert  Leonhardt 

The  Fellah   ........................................   Angelo  Bada 

Chief  Sailor  ........................................  Albert  Reiss 


Two  Merchants   .............................     p! 

|  Pompiho  Malatesta 

The  Cadi  ...........................................  Giulio  Rossi 


Two   Muezzins    ....................................  J\Iax  ,BI(£h. 

j  Angelo  Bada 

A  Donkey  Driver  .................................  Pietro  Audisio 

Sheik-al-Islam   ..................................    Mr.  Burgstaller 


HENRI  RAHAUD 
Composer  of  "Marouf 


THE  OPERATIC  BARBER  OF  BAGDAD  399 

How  many  opera  stories  are  there  still  locked  up  in  the 
"  Arabian  Nights  "  tales  ?  I  do  not  know ;  I  cannot  guess. 
Only  Allah  (extolled  be  his  name!)  knows.  The  thesaurus 
has  been  opened  scores  of  times,  hundreds  of  times,  prob- 
ably, but  the  uncut  gems  still  lie  heaps  upon  heaps.  There 
have  been  English,  French,  German,  and  Italian  operatic 
Aladdins,  even  a  Swedish,  but  they  have  long  ago  gone  into 
the  limbo  of  things  forgotten.  A  Bohemian  Ali  Baba  lived 
once  on  the  lyric  stage  and  had  namesakes  who  were  be- 
gotten by  composers  whose  names  and  some  of  whose 
music  have  a  familiar  sound — Bottesini,  Cherubini,  Lecocq ; 
but  our  boyhood  friend,  who  had  been  the  friend  of 
a  score  of  generations  before  us,  has  gone  with  the  Forty 
Thieves  into  the  cave  of  oblivion,  whose  door  will  no  more 
swing  open  to  our  "  Open,  sesame ! "  We  never  saw 
Marouf  till  Mr.  Gatti  presented  him  to  us,  and  never  even 
heard  of  him  unless  it  was  he  who  used  to  frequent  the 
German  stage  under  the  disguise  of  "  Der  lustige  Schuster." 
Possibly,  but  the  matter  doesn't  signify ;  we  have  the 
Cairene  cobbler  now  and  we  hope  for  his  continued  ac- 
quaintance for  years  to  come. 

But  I  remember,  and  with  much  grateful  kindness,  an- 
other fellow  of  infinite  jest  and  excellent  fancy,  who  jour- 
neyed to  our  opera  house  from  Bagdad,  though  he  came  to 
us  from  that  center  of  German  culture  (not  Kultur},  Wei- 
mar, fragrant  with  memories  of  Goethe,  Schiller,  Herder, 
and  Liszt.  The  "  Barber  of  Bagdad,"  by  Peter  Cornelius, 
was  a  feature  of  the  Metropolitan  in  its  German  period. 
That  was  a  long  time  ago,  yet  his  embodiment  in  the  acting 
of  Emil  Fischer  came  back  to  occupy  memory  and  fancy 
when  we  listened  to  Rabaud's  delightful  opera.  Again  we 
listened  to  the  gabble  and  the  Gilbertian  patter  of  the  pro- 
totype of  all  loquacious,  prying,  intermeddling  barbers.  We 
heard  him  hurl  his  terrible  name,  Abu  Hassan  Ali  Ebe  Be- 
car,  amid  orchestral  thunderings  at  Noureddin's  affrighted 
servants.  Saw  them  attack  him,  throw  him  on  a  divan; 


400  INGENIOUS  USE  OF  ORIENTAL  THEMES 

poultice,  plaster,  rub,  bandage,  phlebotomize,  and  dose  him 
to  the  verge  of  death,  because  when  called  on  to  shave  their 
master  he  insisted  on  casting  his  horoscope  and  chattering 
half  an  hour  about  his  own  paucity  of  speech  and  the  gar- 
rulity of  his  six  brothers  before  he  even  honed  his  razor. 
We  saw  the  lovelorn  hero  enduring  the  torture,  with  bursting 
gall  bladder  and  crumbled  liver,  till  the  call  of  the  muezzin 
summoned  him  to  his  tryst  with  the  Cadi's  daughter  though 
his  head  was  but  half  shaved  and  he  dashed  off  only  to 
suffer  new  adventures,  because  of  the  barber's  dilatoriness 
and  pertinacity. 

In  the  music  of  Rabaud's  "  Marouf  "  there  are  only  the 
Oriental  arabesques  of  the  muezzin's  call  to  matin  prayer, 
which  trace  kinship  with  Cornelius's  setting  of  his  own 
dramatic  version  of  the  tailor's  story  in  "  The  Thousand 
Nights  and  A  Night."  Rabaud's  composition  is  saturated 
with  the  languorous  colors  and  odors  of  the  East.  Cor- 
nelius's is  German  music.  There  is  no  effect  in  which  they 
meet,  unless,  as  we  thought  when  hearing  "  Marouf  "  for 
the  first  time,  it  is  that  dry  cackling  of  wood-wind  instru- 
ments in  dissonant  chords  which  accompanies  Bostana,  the 
female  pendant  of  the  barber,  and  which  Rabaud  uses  to 
characterize  the  virago  who  drives  Marouf  into  good  for- 
tune. 

But  this  is  an  all  but  negligible  feature  in  the  French 
opera  and  not  one  of  its  charming  traits.  The  chief  fasci- 
nation comes  from  the  use  of  Oriental  themes ;  perhaps  not 
so  much  from  the  idioms  themselves  as  from  the  manner 
in  which  they  are  employed.  We  can  imagine  that  ears 
accustomed  to  only  melody  of  the  Occidental  types  might 
become  weary  of  the  dialogue  in  "Marouf"  (for  of  set 
song  there  is  nothing  except  an  air  in  the  third  act  which 
does  not  belong  to  the  score  and  was  interpolated  by  the 
composer  to  oblige  Mme.  Alda),  but  it  was  an  uninquisitive 
ear  and  a  stagnant  fancy  that  was  not  arrested,  lured,  and 
seduced  by  the  woven  voices  of  the  orchestra.  Here  the 


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THE  STYLE  OF  THE  MUSIC  401 

idiom  of  the  East  is  transmuted  into  a  speech  which  be- 
longs to  the  world  of  exalted  fancy — exalted  yet  altogether 
ingenuous.  The  score  is  wonderfully  transparent.  There 
is  not'  an  opaque  measure  in  it,  not  one  in  which  instru- 
ments are  multiplied  or  colors  mixed  till  the  utterance  be- 
comes turgid,  not  one  in  which  one  voice  invalidates 
another,  not  one  in  which  even  the  most  exotic  of  tones 
and  combinations  does  not  seem  native  because  of  its  fitness 
to  scene  or  situation. 

There  are  throbbings  of  Arab  drums  and  the  reedy  tones 
of  oboes  which  might  bring  up  memories  of  the  Streets  of 
Cairo  in  the  big  show  in  Chicago  in  1893,  if  they  were  not 
refined  and  sublimated  by  the  atmosphere  in  which  they 
float,  the  atmosphere  of  the  land  of  romance  through 
which  we  walked  when  we  put  our  hands  in  the  long  ago 
within  the  irresistible  fingers  of  Scheherazade,  where  they 
still  remain  and  whence  they  shall  never  be  withdrawn. 

Faint  tintinnabulations  of  golden-toned  gongs  float 
through  the  air,  and  the  ear,  enslaved  by  the  imagination, 
absorbs  them,  not  wonderingly,  but  as  if  they  were  the 
natural  food  of  hearing,  as  the  pale  blue,  starless  sky,  with 
its  faraway  domes  wreathed  and  crowned  with  lights, 
seems  the  only  picture  that  ought  to  fill  the  vision. 

The  dialogue  in  "  Marouf "  is  carried  on  not  in  set 
melodic  formularies,  but  in  a  species  of  musically  heightened 
and  emotionally  colored  speech.  It  ought  to  have  been  intel- 
ligible to  all,  and  would  have  been  if  it  had  been  sung  in 
the  vernacular,  or  to  all  knowers  of  French,  if  the  pro- 
nunciation and  diction  of  all  the  persons  concerned  in  the 
performance  had  been  what  they  ought.  The  composer 
did  nothing  to  obscure  it.  In  part  it  makes  use  of  the  in- 
tervallic  idioms  of  Oriental  music  and  is  burdened  with 
the  remplissage  of  ornament  peculiar  to  Oriental  song.  But 
the  characteristic  racial  element  is  found  chiefly  in  the  or- 
chestral stream  upon  which  the  dialogue  floats.  There  are 
a  few  exceptions  to  the  rule.  Marouf 's  first  song,  "  II  est 


402  ARAB  CHANTS  EMPLOYED 

Musulman,"  is  plainly  a  Cairene  folksong,  shorn  of  some 
of  its  redundancy  of  ornament,  which  Villoteau  preserved 
for  us.  The  song  of  the  muezzin,  which  calls  the  faithful 
to  prayer,  as  we  hear  it  first  from  two  solo  voices  in  the 
second  scene  of  the  second  act,  and  which  is  woven  through 
the  later  contrapuntal  ensemble,  is  another  quotation  from 
that  learned  musical  Egyptologist.  Villoteau  was  one  of 
the  savants  whom  Bonaparte  sent  into  Egypt  in  1798,  and 
he  wrote  the  chapters  on  music  in  the  monumental  "  De- 
scription de  1'Egypte."  Rabaud  is  only  one  of  many  com- 
posers who  have  studied  him,  though  he  has  done  so  to 
better  purpose  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  save,  possibly, 
Felicien  David,  who  makes  fine  use  of  the  chant  of  the 
Muezzin  in  his  "  Desert."  Cornelius  uses  this  music,  or 
another  transcription  of  the  call,  in  his  "  Barber  of  Bag- 
dad," where  it  is  the  only  bit  of  local  color  introduced,  but 
where  it  is  also  most  skilfully  treated. 

There  are,  no  doubt,  many  other  quotations  in  Rabaud's 
score  which  escaped  our  recognition,  and  themes  which  had 
their  inspiration  in  melodies  noted  down  by  Villoteau. 
There  is  a  suggestion  of  a  traditional  Egyptian  march  in 
the  militant  theme  which  introduces  the  Sultan  and  ac- 
companies him  through  the  scenes  in  which  he  figures.  This 
.device  of  characterization  is  frequently  employed  by  Ra- 
baud. The  cobbler  is  a  shameless  liar  and  impostor.  Why 
do  all  the  characters  in  the  play  who  know  him  give  him 
their  sympathy?  Why  does  he  bewail  himself  and  his 
neighbors  echo  the  commiserating  strain?  Why  is  he  a 
colossal  liar  without  forfeiting  our  regard?  The  injustice 
which  prevails  in  all  the  "  Arabian  Nights  "  stories  is  fla- 
grantly proclaimed  in  the  final  punishment  of  the  only  far- 
seeing  personage  of  the  play. 

We  smile  while  seeing  the  Vizier  punished;  yet  it  was 
he  who  saw  through  the  false  pretence  of  the  rascally  cob- 
bler who  is  rewarded  for  his  domestic  truancy  with  a  wife, 
beautiful  as  the  moon,  and  immeasurable  treasure,  while 


AN  ORATORIO  DONE  INTO  OPERA  403 

the  servant  of  the  Sultan  who  sought  to  save  his  master 
goes  to  the  bastinado.  Kismet.  "  What  will  happen,  will 
happen."  No  harm.  It  is  all  of  the  very  essence  of  the 
"Arabian  Nights,"  Scheherazade  distilled  it  in  her  recital 
to  her  lord  the  King ;  Rabaud  has  given  it  to  us  again  out  of 
his  alembic.  Bismillah! 

With  Liszt's  German  oratorio  turned  into  an  English 
opera,  I  found  little  patience.  Mr.  Bodanzky  conducted  the 
performance  and  a  generous  effort  was  made  to  put  it  upon 
the  stage  with  pictures  in  the  new  manner,  which  affects 
to  believe  that  the  imagination  provides  better  subjects  for 
illustration  than  poor  Dame  Nature,  who  has  some  respect 
for  cause  and  effect  in  the  matter  of  lights  and  shadows, 
the  habits  of  trees  and  so  forth.  The  parts  were  distributed 
as  follows : 

Saint  Elizabeth   Florence  Easton 

Landgrave   Ludwig    Clarence   Whitehill 

Landgrave  Hermann    Carl  Schlegel 

Landgravine  Sophie  Margarete  Matzenauer 

The  Seneschal   Robert  Leonhardt 

A  Hungarian   Magnate    Basil   Ruysdael 

Elizabeth,   as   a   child    Constanze   Bitterl 

Ludwig  as  a  child  Margarete  Belleri 

"  St.  Elizabeth  "  as  an  oratorio  had  been  last  heard  in 
New  York  on  December  n,  1911,  at  a  concert  of  the  Mac- 
Dowell  Chorus.  That  was  announced  as  a  first  performance 
in  New  York ;  but  the  good  people  who  put  forward  the  an- 
nouncement were  not  blessed  with  either  long  memories  or 
interest  in  the  musical  doings  of  the  past.  A  glance  at  local 
records  would  have  taught  them  that  the  oratorio  was  per- 
formed first  by  the  Deutscher  Liederkranz  in  1870,  re- 
peated by  the  same  society  two  or  three  years  later,  revived 
by  Mr.  Theodore  Thomas  and  the  Brooklyn  Philharmonic 
Society  on  February  28,  1885,  and  performed  by  the  same 
society,  as  a  memorial  to  the  composer,  who  had  died  in 
the  preceding  summer,  on  December  17  and  18,  1886. 


404  LISZT'S  "  ST.  ELIZABETH  " 

There  are  a  few  points,  historical  and  legendary,  con- 
nected with  "  St.  Elizabeth  "  and  its  subject-matter  which 
may  be  taken  up  with  possible  profit  before  a  description 
of  the  work  is  entered  upon.  It  is  generally  supposed  that 
the  oratorio  was  composed  at  the  instance  of  the  Grand 
Duke  of  Weimar  (though  the  score  bears  a  dedication  to 
King  Ludwig  II  of  Bavaria)  for  a  festival  held  at  the 
Wartburg  on  August  28,  1867,  in  commemoration  of  the 
eighth  centenary  of  its  foundation  and  in  honor  of  the  res- 
toration of  the  famous  castle,  then  just  completed.  In  a 
general  way  this  is  true,  but  the  oratorio  had  previously 
been  performed  in  Pesth,  as  well  as  in  Eisenach,  two  years 
before  the  Wartburg  festival.  The  Wartburg,  it  will  be  re- 
called, was  the  scene  of  the  contest  of  minstrelsy  celebrated 
in  Wagner's  "  Tannhauser "  and  Luther's  hiding-place 
while  he  was  engaged  in  translating  the  Bible  into  German 
and  creating  a  literary  language  for  the  German  people. 
The  Wartburg  had  been  enriched  after  its  restoration  by 
six  frescoes  by  Moritz  von  Schwind,  illustrating  as  many 
episodes  in  the  historical  and  legendary  account  of  Eliza- 
beth of  Hungary,  a'nd  these  pictures  were  the  starting-point 
of  Litzt's  inspiration,  or,  let  us  say,  they  gave  the  sugges- 
tion for  his  oratorio.  Otto  Roquette  put  the  pictures  into 
words,  and  Liszt,  grouping  the  text  into  two  divisions,  set 
it  to  music  of  a  partly  dramatic,  partly  epical  kind.  The 
scenes  may  be  briefly  described  thus: 

I.  Arrival  of  Elizabeth  as  a  child  at  the  Wartburg.     She  is  ac- 
companied by  magnates  of  her  native   Hungary,   and  is   received 
with  joy  by  a  group  of  children,  who  are  to  be  her  playmates,  and 
by  the  Thuringian  nobility. 

II.  Elizabeth  has  grown  to  maturity  and  been  married  to  Ludwig 
of  Thuringia,  to  whom  she  had  been  betrothed  as  a  child  and  who 
had  succeeded  his  father,  Hermann,  as  Landgrave.     On  a  hunting 
expedition  Ludwig  detects  her  carrying  bread  and  wine  to  the  poor, 
contrary  to  his  commands.     He  upbraids  her,  but,  though  she  con- 
fesses her  pious  guilt,  when  her  basket  is  opened  it  is  discovered 
that  the  viands  have  been  miraculously  changed  to  roses. 

III.  The  miracle  turns  the  Landgrave's  mind  to  piety,  and  at  the 
head  of  his  vassals  he  starts  out  on  a  crusade  to  the  Holy  Land. 


FLORENCE  EASTON 

In    "Saint    Elizabeth" 


A  HUNGARIAN  SAINT  AND  TANNHAUSER         405 

IV.  There  he  dies,  and  his  mother,  Landgravine  Sophie,  usurps 
Elizabeth's  rights  and  drives  her  out  of  the  Wartburg. 

V.  Elizabeth   dies   surrounded  by  the  poor  whom   she  had  be- 
friended and  with  whom  she  shares  her  last  crust  of  bread. 

VI.  She  is  buried   with   solemn   pomp  in  the   Cathedral   in   the 
presence  of  the  Emperor  Frederick  II  of  Hohenstaufen,  a  mag- 
nificent company  of  German  and  Hungarian  bishops  and  a  large 
concourse  of  people. 

The  circumstance  that  the  scene  of  the  oratorio  or  opera 
(Liszt  called  it  a  "  Legend,"  though  it  mixes  historical  and 
mythical  material)  is  the  Wartburg,  near  Eisenach,  and 
that  two  of  the  characters  bear  the  names  of  people  who 
figure,  as  does  the  scene,  in  Wagner's  "  Tannhauser,"  is 
calculated  to  cause  a  little  confusion  in  the  minds  of  some 
people  touching  the  relationship  existing  between  the  two 
works.  "  Tannhauser  "  deals  with  a  contest  of  minstrelsy 
held  in  the  Wartburg  at  the  instance  of  Hermann,  Land- 
grave of  Thuringia,  and  the  heroine  in  the  play  is  Eliza- 
beth, who  loves  Tannhauser  and  whose  saintly  intercession 
is  invoked  by  the  knight  with  his  dying  words.  Wagner's 
Landgrave  is  historical,  and  supposedly  the  same  Hermann 
who  figures  in  Liszt's  oratorio ;  but  the  heroine  of  the  opera 
is  Wagner's  creation,  while  the  Elizabeth  of  Liszt's  work 
is  an  historical  personage  who  still  holds  a  place  in  the  cal- 
endar of  saints.  If  they  were  contemporaries  at  all,  how- 
ever, it  cannot  have  been  under  any  such  conditions  as  are 
set  forth  in  either  opera  or  oratorio,  for  the  contest  of  min- 
strels at  the  Wartburg  is  said  to  have  taken  place  A.D. 
1207,  in  which  year  St.  Elizabeth  was  born  at  Pressburg. 
At  four  years  of  age  she  was  betrothed  to  Ludwig  IV, 
Landgrave  of  Thuringia,  and  taken  to  the  Wartburg  to  be 
educated  under  the  direction  of  Ludwig's  parents.  Stimu- 
lated by  the  example  of  her  mother's  sister,  Hedwig,  wife 
of  Henry  VI,  Duke  of  Silesia  (who  was  also  canonized), 
she  sacrificed  all  her  childish  pleasures  to  religious  duty 
and  charity.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  she  married  Ludwig, 
over  whom,  according  to  the  historical  accounts,  she  ac- 


406         HISTORICAL  AND  LEGENDARY  ELEMENTS 

quired  such  influence  that  he  became  her  zealous  helper  in 
the  dispensation  of  alms.  The  legendary  story  is  that  told 
in  the  pictures  of  Schwind  and  Liszt's  oratorio.  Returning 
from  a  hunt,  Ludwig  met  his  wife  carrying  food  to  the 
poor  contrary  to  his  wishes.  He  sternly  commanded  her  to 
open  the  bundle  which  she  was  carrying,  and  when  she  did 
so  it  was  found  to  be  filled  with  roses.  The  miracle  led 
him  fully  to  accept  the  Christian  faith. 

Thus  the  legend;  now  to  return  to  whai  may  be  con- 
sidered fairly  substantiated  history:  Ludwig  died  A.D. 
1227,  and  Elizabeth  was  robbed  of  the  regency  by  his 
brother  on  the  pretext  that  she  was  wasting  the  estate  by 
her  almsgiving.  She  was  driven  out  of  the  Wartburg  with 
her  three  children  in  poverty,  being  allowed  to  carry  away 
with  her  scarcely  enough  to  sustain  life.  She  found  asylum, 
however,  with  her  maternal  uncle,  the  Bishop  of  Bam- 
berg,  and  after  a  space  the  regency  was  again  offered 
to  her  through  the  intervention  of  some  of  the  Thuringian 
barons,  and  her  son  Hermann  was  declared  heir  to  the 
Landgraviate.  She  chose  a  life  of  seclusion  to  the  exer- 
cise of  her  powers,  and  continued  her  lavish  distribution 
of  charity  under  the  care  of  her  father  confessor,  Conrad 
of  Marburg,  a  bigoted,  persecuting  prelate,  until  her  death 
in  November,  1231.  Four  years  later  she  was  canonized 
by  Pope  Gregory  IX. 

The  difference  between  legend,  or  myth,  and  history  is 
apparent  from  a  comparison  of  this  exposition  and  the  sum- 
mary printed  above  explanatory  of  Moritz  von  Schwind's 
frescoes.  The  discussion  was  scarcely  necessary  to  an  ap- 
preciation of  the  work  of  Roquette  and  Liszt,  but  it  can  do 
no  harm  and  may  save  some  hearers  of  the  work  inclined 
to  take  a  serious  view  of  lyric  drama  from  the  singular 
blunder  into  which  a  New  York  critic  fell  in  his  discussion 
of  the  first  performance  of  "  Parsifal,"  when,  knowing 
nothing  of  the  mediaeval  German  epics,  he  jumped  to  the 
conclusion  that  Kundry  was  Lohengrin's  mother.  He  had 


MASCAGNI'S  "LODOLETTA"  407 

seen  Kundry  enter  the  Temple  of  the  Holy  Grail  after  her 
absolution,  and  heard  Lohengrin  proclaim  that  Parsifal  (or 
Parzival)  was  his  father.  That  sufficed  his  ingenuous  soul! 
The  latest  of  Mascagni's  operas,  "  Lodoletta,"  was  pro- 
duced for  the  first  time  in  America  under  the  direction  of 
Signer  Moranzoni  on  January  12  with  the  following  cast: 


Lodoletta  Geraldine  Farrar 

Flammen    Enrico   Caruso 

Franz   Andreas  de  Segurola 

Gianotto  Pasquale  Amato 

Antonio  Adamo  Didur 

A   Mad  Woman    Lila   Robeson 

Vannard    Cecil   Arden 

Maud    Minnie   Egener 

A  Voice  Max  Bloch 

A  Letter  Carrier  Sante  Mandelli 

An  Old  Violinist Mr.  Burgstaller 


It  seemed  to  me  that  Mascagni  never  wrote  a  weaker 
score  than  this.  Obviously  the  opera  was  chosen  for  the 
sake  of  Mr.  Caruso  and  just  as  obviously  Mr.  Caruso  will 
not  be  able  to  save  it.  Its  story  is  that  of  the  little  romance 
by  Ouida  entitled  "  Two  Little  Wooden  Shoes."  A  French 
poet  meets  a  little  girl  in  Holland  and  she  falls  innocently 
in  love  with  him.  Her  guardian  is  killed,  and  as  the  poet 
stops  to  paint  his  portrait  evil  tongues  slander  the  girl. 
The  poet  goes  to  Paris  and  there  lives  the  gay  life  that 
poets  will  if  they  can;  but  in  the  midst  of  his  gaieties  he 
is  unable  to  forget  the  little  girl  in  her  wooden  shoes.  She 
follows  him  to  the  capital  and  dies  on  his  doorstep  in  a 
snowstorm.  That  is  all  that  need  be  said  about  play  or 
music. 

"  Le  Prophete  "  was  revived  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
Bodanzky  on  February  7,  1918,  with  the  following  cast: 


Jean  of  Leyden Enrico  Caruso 

Fides,  his  Mother  Margarete  Matzenauer 


408  A  REVIVAL  OF  "LE  PROPHETE" 

Bertha,  his  Bride  Claudia  Muzio 

Jonas  Max  Bloch 

Mathisen  Carl  Schlegel 

Zaccharia    Jose   Mardones 

Count  Oberthal    Adamo   Didur 

An  Anabaptist    Louis   d'Angelo 

An  Officer  Pietro  Audisio 

A  Captain  Basil  Ruysdael 

A  Peasant   Vincenzo  Reschiglian 

It  is  one  of  the  anomalies  in  the  history  of  "  Le  Prophete  " 
that  till  this  period  it  was  not  to  the  Italian  or  French 
performances  but  to  the  German  the  opera  owed  the  greatest 
part  of  its  life  on  the  stage  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera 
House.  The  opera  was  given  nine  times  in  the  first  German 
season  and  until  this  season  the  majority  of  the  perform- 
ances heard  in  New  York  were  in  the  German  language. 
When  Dr.  Leopold  Damrosch  produced  it,  it  rivaled  the 
Wagnerian  operas  of  his  list  in  popularity.  Since  Mr.  Ab- 
bey brought  it  forward  in  the  season  of  1883-84,  when  the 
theater  was  new,  New  Yorkers  had  heard  three  representa- 
tives of  the  titular  character  in  Italian  (Stagno,  Tamagno, 
and  Jean  de  Reszke),  five  in  German  (Schott,  Sylva,  Nie- 
mann,  Perotti,  and  Gudehus),  and  two  in  French  (Alvarez 
and  Caruso).  That  the  opera  had  never  been  popular  in 
the  sense  that  Puccini's  operas  are  popular  is  no  doubt  due 
to  the  great  difficulty  of  finding  adequate  representatives 
of  its  two  principal  characters  and  the  depressing  effect  of 
the  singing  of  those  three  black  crows,  the  Anabaptist  mis- 
sioners,  unless  the  parts  are  carried  by  vocal  artists  of  the 
first  rank;  the  only  instance  of  which  that  I  can  recall  was 
in  the  performances  under  Mr.  Grau,  when  men  like  Edou- 
ard  de  Reszke  and  Plangon  were  called  into  service. 

"  Le  Coq  d'Or,"  a  Russian  opera,  the  book  after  Poushkin 
by  Vladimir  Bielski,  the  music  by  Rimsky-Korsakow, 
adapted  as  an  "  opera-pantomime "  by  Michael  Fokine, 
staged  by  Adolph  Bolm  and  conducted  by  Pierre  Monteux, 
was  produced  with  the  following  double  cast: 


RIMSKY-KORSAKOW'S  "  COQ  D'OR  "  409 

The  Princess   Maria  Barrientos Rosina   Galli 

The  King  Adamo  Didur  Adolph  Bolm 

Amelfa  Sophie  Braslau  Queenie  Smith 

The  Astrologer Rafaello  Diaz   Giuseppe  Bonfiglio 

The  Prince Pietro  Audisio   Marshall  Hall 

The  General  Basil  Ruysdael   Ottokar  Bartik 

A  Knight  Vincenzo  Reschiglian  .  Vincenzo  Loucelli 

The  Golden  Cock  Marie  Sundelius 

When  Mr.  Rimsky-Korsakow,  a  man  of  intellect  and  a 
composer  of  genius  and  experience,  wrote  "  Le.Coq  d'Or," 
he  thought  he  had  created  an  opera.  So  did  the  Russian 
censor  who,  for  political  reasons,  suppressed  it  till  after 
the  composer's  death.  So  did  the  manager  of  the  private 
theater  at  Moscow  who  produced  it  in  May,  1910.  So  did 
the  composer's  widow,  who  protested,  though  in  vain,  when 
the  work  was  presented  as  a  sort  of  glorified  Punch  and 
Judy  show  in  Paris  and  London  in  1912.  Yet  it  was  in  this 
form  that  Mr.  Gatti  thought  fit  to  bring  it  out.  The  excuse 
offered  for  the  transmogrification  of  the  work  is  that  its 
action  offers  insuperable  difficulties  to  operatic  singers. 
There  is  nothing  novel  in  such  a  contention ;  it  stands  as 
against  every  lyric  drama  that  is  a  trifle  remote  from  the 
old-fashioned  concert  in  costume.  As  a  rule  opera  singers 
are  not  actors.  They  wear  costumes  sometimes  of  historic 
appositeness,  wave  their  arms  about,  attitudinize,  and  make 
more  or  less  pleasing  and  intelligible  sounds  with  their 
voices.  That  is  acting  as  they  conceive  it  to  be. 

I  cannot  quite  accept  the  explanation  of  the  transforma- 
tion of  "  Le  Coq  d'Or "  as  authentic,  when  I  recall  the 
genesis  of  the  change.  It  was  made  in  a  period  of  the 
world's  history  very  like  that  in  which  Dryden  said  he 
lived : 

A  very  merry,  dancing,  drinking, 
Laughing,  quaffing,  and  unthinking 
Time. 

The  world  had  been  dance-mad  for  several  years ;  it  was 
in  very  truth  "  dancing  on  a  volcano."  The  neurologists  of 


410  OPERAS  AND  PUPPET-SHOWS 

the  next  generation  will  no  doubt  give  some  attention  to 
the  subject  and  associate  the  phenomenon  with  the  world- 
war.  I  should  not  wonder;  although  unlike  the  nervous 
disorder  which  followed  the  plague  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury our  mania  preceded  our  war.  It  was  a  precursory 
instead  of  a  sequential  symptom.  Our  foxtrotting  and 
tangoing  had  little  to  do  with  the  revival  of  pantomimic 
dancing  by  Loie  Fuller,  Isadora  Duncan,  and  the  Russian 
Ballet,  but  a  good  deal  to  do  with  that  popular  frame  of 
mind  which  refuses  to  demand  seriousness  in  the  theater 
and  is  content  with  a  stimulation  of  the  senses.  "  But,  per- 
haps, 'twere  to  consider  too  curiously  to  consider  so." 
There  is  nothing  more  to  be  said  until  "  Le  Coq  d'Or  "  in 
its  present  form  shall  have  run  its  course  and  the  public 
shall  have  spoken  its  judgment — not  on  Rimsky-Korsakow's 
opera  but  on  Fokine's  fantoccini  capering  to  the  composer's 
delightful  and  frequently  brilliant  music.  I  shall  take  the 
liberty  to  add,  however,  that,  as  it  is,  "  Le  Coq  d'Or  "  sug- 
gests the  coming  of  "  movie  "  operas  just  as  it  recalls  the 
drama  of  the  Javanese,  the  Chinese  shadow-plays,  and  the 
old  English  moralities  in  which  puppets  played  to  musical 
sounds.  Turn  about  is  fair  play,  I  presume,  in  the  opera 
house.  Don  Giovanni  had  his  fling  on  the  puppet  stage  be- 
fore Mozart  composed  him  and  Faust  before  Goethe  im- 
mortalized him ;  while  the  passion  of  Pelleas  and  Melisande 
was  designed  by  Maeterlinck  to  be  exhibited  in  a  mario- 
nette theater.  Debussy  wrote  his  opera  in  spite  of  the  Bel- 
gian poet's  protest,  just  as  Fokine  made  a  pantomime  with 
song  out  of  "  Le  Coq  d'Or  "  against  the  wishes  of  the  com- 
poser's widow,  when  the  composer  could  no  longer  pro- 
test. There  is  no  reason  obvious  to  me  why  Mr.  Gatti's 
singing  and  dancing  forces  should  not  have  been  united  to 
bring  out  the  dramatic  conceit  in  the  minds  of  Poushkin 
and  Rimsky-Korsakow.  There  would  have  been  no  loss 
in  the  pageantry,  no  sacrifice  of  the  choreographic  side  of 
the  entertainment  saving,  and  excepting  always,  the  witchery 


UOSIXA  GALI.I 
In  "Le  Coq  d'Or" 


THE  PLOT  OF  "  LE  COQ  D'OR  "  4" 

of  Rosina  Galli's  person  and  miming,  of  which,  indeed, 
there  was  too  much. 

The  story  of  "  Le  Coq  d'Or  "  is  supposed  to  be  charged 
with  political  satire,  but  to  that  I  prefer  to  pay  no  heed  in 
these  troublesome  times.  Let  it  be  told  in  the  conventional 
parlance  of  the  theater:  In  the  first  scene  we  are  intro- 
duced to  a  hall  in  the  palace  of  King  Dodon  where  he  is 
holding  a  council  with  his  boyars.  He  tells  them  that  he 
is  weary  of  royal  responsibilities  and  especially  of  the  per- 
petual warfare  with  his  hostile  neighbors.  He  longs  for 
rest.  He  asks  the  advice  of  his  heir,  Prince  Guidon,  who 
says  that  instead  of  fighting  on  the  frontier  he  should  with- 
draw his  troops  and  let  them  surround  his  capital  after  well 
provisioning  it.  Then  while  the  enemy  is  destroying  the 
rest  of  the  country  the  King  might  rest,  and  think  of  some 
new  way  of  circumventing  him.  General  Polkan,  however, 
disapproves  of  the  project.  Very  soon  the  assembly  is  in 
violent  disagreement  when  an  astrologer  arrives  upon  the 
scene  and  offers  to  King  Dodon  the  gift  of  a  Golden  Cock 
which  shall  always  give  warning  of  approaching  danger. 
The  King,  at  first  skeptical,  is  converted  when  the  Cock 
being  brought  in  cries  :  "  Kikeriki,  kikerikou !  Be  on  your 
guard,  mind  what  you  do !  "  In  the  second  act  Dodon  and 
the  Voyovode  Polkan  with  their  army  come  to  a  narrow 
pass  among  the  rocks  which  has  evidently  been  the  scene 
of  a  battle.  Here  Dodon  comes  upon  the  dead  bodies  of 
his  two  sons,  who  have  apparently  killed  each  other. 
Amidst  his  grief  he  perceives  under  the  shelter  of  the  hill- 
side a  large  tent  whence  emerges  a  beautiful  woman  and 
sings  a  song  to  the  dawn.  She  is  the  Queen  of  Shemakha, 
who  allures  the  old  King  with  her  beauty  and  consents  to 
go  to  Dodon's  capital  and  be  his  bride.  There  the  Astrolo- 
ger appears  and  demands  his  reward,  which  is  the  Queen. 
King  Dodon  refuses.  The  Cock  utters  a  threatening  cry 
and  with  a  blow  of  his  beak  pierces  the  skull  of  the  King. 

"Shanewis,"  an  American  opera,  the  book  by  Nellie  Rich- 


412  MR.  CADMAN'S  "SHANEWIS" 

mond  Eberhard,  the  music  by  Charles  Wakefield  Cadman, 
conducted  by  Mr.  Moranzoni,  was  produced  with  the  parts 
distributed  as  follows: 

Shanewis  Sophie  Braslau 

Mrs.  Everton   Kathleen  Howard 

Amy   Marie  Sundelius 

Lionel   Paul   Althouse 

Phillippe  Thomas  Chalmers 

There  were  also  Indians,  high  school  girls,  a  pianist  who 
had  to  play  an  accompaniment  to  a  song,  and  an  Indian 
girl  in  the  cast;  but  they  signified  little.  The  plot  of  the 
opera  was  geneially  voted  about  the  stupidest  -that  could 
be  conceived  for  such  a  purpose  and  the  dramatic  construc- 
tion of  the  score  betrayed  the  hand  of  the  apprentice.  What 
made  the  opera  tolerable  was  its  melodiousness,  in  the  sen- 
timental salon  style,  and  the  use  of  Indian  color  in  some  of 
the  music.  Mr.  Henderson,  reviewing  the  season,  said  in 
The  Sun  newspaper :  "  Mr.  Cadman's  little  opera  contains 
the  elements  of  dramatic  sincerity  and  force ;  and  these 
have  commended  it  to  the  public  attention.  It  is  always 
melodious,  and  of  course  that  counts  for  much,  and  the 
first  act  has  a  duet  of  really  meritorious  quality.  It  has  the 
character  of  the  composer's  songs  and  it  does  not  rise  to 
the  higher  levels  of  lyric  style,  but  it  has  temperament  and 
dramatic  feeling."  This  was  a  verdict  prompted  by  a  desire 
to  be  as  kind  as  possible  to  a  native  work  because  it  was  a 
native  work.  An  American  ballet  associated  with  it  in  per- 
formance was  the  "  Dance  in  the  Place  Congo,"  originally 
composed  by  Henry  F.  Gilbert  as  a  free  rhapsody  on  Creole 
melodies  to  which  attention  had  been  called  many  years 
before  by  a  series  of  magazine  articles  written  by  George 
W.  Cable.  Choreographic  scenes  with  a  conventional  plot 
of  jealousy  and  murder  were  grafted  onto  the  music  by 
Mr.  Ottokar  Bartik.  The  music  was  voted  good,  even  ad- 
mirable, in  its  way,  but  the  dramatic  scenes  were  neither 


SOPHIE  BRASLAU 
As  Shanewis 


PROBLEMS  RAISED  BY  THE  WAR  413 

varied  nor  significant  enough  to  justify  the  title  ballet,  and 
the  work  lived  a  shorter  life  than  it  would  probably  have 
enjoyed  had  it  been  reserved  for  the  concert-room,  for 
which  it  was  designed. 

This  brings  the  record  of  the  effect  of  the  war  upon 
music  in  the  United  States  and  opera  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House,  with  which  the  last  chapters  of  these  memoirs 
are  particularly  concerned,  to  an  end.  There  remains  what 
I  must  look  upon  in  the  light  of  an  obligation,  since  my 
purposes  have  been  critical  as  well  as  historical  from  the 
beginning,  to  discuss  the  aesthetic  principles  which  have  been 
brought  into  court  by  the  facts  presented.  I  do  not  care 
to  indulge  in  speculation  or  prophecy  touching  the  future, 
in  which  matters  will  inevitably  adjust  themselves.  Through- 
out the  period  of  political  turmoil  the  public  mind  seemed 
to  be  sadly  muddled  as  to  the  attitude  which  our  concert  and, 
operatic  institutions  ought  to  adopt  toward  German  music 
and  German  musicians.  There  was  little  effort  to  differen- 
tiate between  the  art  and  its  practitioners;  between  an  ex- 
pression of  the  beautiful  which  in  its  very  nature  is  both 
guiltless  and  incapable  of  the  political  sentiments  now  ab- 
horred by  nearly  all  the  civilized  peoples  of  the  world ;  the 
masters  who  created  it  with  neither  knowledge  nor  pre- 
monition that  those  who  came  after  them  would  revert  to 
moral  savagery,  and  the  practitioners  who  lived  under  that 
savagery  and  in  some  cases  sympathized  with  it  and  upheld 
it.  Yet  such  a  distinction  ought  to  be  instinctive  in  every 
intelligent  child.  To  banish  Wagner's  dramas  from  the 
stage  of  America  can  as  little  serve  the  cause  for  which  the 
nation  pledged  its  wealth,  honor  and  life,  as  to  bedaub  the 
statues  of  Goethe  and  Schiller  as  was  done  in  some  places. 
The  people  set  up  a  statue  of  Heine  in  New  York  years 
ago,  largely  as  a  protest  against  the  attitude  of  the  German 
Emperor,  who  would  not  tolerate  a  memorial  of  that  un- 
compromising democrat  in  Berlin.  Why  should  it  have 
been  thought  patriotic  to  dishonor  the  symbols  of  our  vener- 


414      SHOULD  WAGNER'S  DRAMAS  BE  BANISHED? 

ation  for  the  genius  of  Goethe,  who  refused  to  hate  France 
and  its  literature  even  while  Germany  was  striving  to  throw 
off  the  Napoleonic  yoke?  Or  of  Schiller,  who  hymned 
freedom  in  what  is  now  called  the  "'Ode  of  Joy,"  which 
Beethoven,  a  hater  of  German  political  institutions  and  a 
lover  of  the  British  constitution,  helped  to  make  immortal? 

Why  should  Wagner's  dramas  have  been  banished  from 
the  stage  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House?  Because  of 
the  political  beliefs  of  their  composer  ?  Assuredly  not ;  for 
he  was  a  revolutionary  against  the  monarchical  state  while 
living  and  after  his  death  left  no  preachments  which  could 
bring  comfort  to  those  who  attempted  to  destroy  the  po- 
litical ideals  for  which  America  went  into  battle.  He  wrote 
a  silly  lampoon  on  the  French  Government  after  the 
Franco-Prussian  War,  but  its  banality  avenged  itself  on 
his  fame.  He  wrote  a  march  to  glorify  William  I,  but  his 
political  reputation  wrought  its  rejection  at  the  function  for 
which  he  had  designed  it.  He  also  wrote  a  march  to  cele- 
brate the  centenary  of  American  Independence,  but  with  it 
he  garnered  as  little  artistic  glory  as  with  his  foolish 
French  farce. 

Should  Wagner's  dramas  be  banished  from  our  stage 
because  of  the  doctrines  which  they  inculcated  ?  The  world 
has  learned  to  smile  at  Wagner  as  a  philosopher.  Even 
Bernard  Shaw  breaks  down  in  his  elucidation  of  the  doc- 
trines of  socialism,  which  he  assumes  to  be  the  basis  of 
"  The  Ring  of  the  Nibelung  "  when  he  reaches  "  Gotterdam- 
merung  " ;  wherefore  he  proclaims  that  drama  to  be  mere 
opera  and  poor  opera  at  that.  But  the  underlying  purpose 
of  the  tetralogy  is  to  teach  that  selfish  egoism,  finding  its 
expression  in  brute  force,  must  give  way  to  a  dispensation 
of  justice  and  love ;  the  selfish  will  of  Wotan  is  broken  by 
the  willing  self-sacrifice  of  Briinnhilde.  Shall  we  quarrel 
with  such  an  ethical  conception?  Or  with  that  which  lies 
at  the  base  of  "  Tannhauser  " — that  salvation  comes  to  hu- 
manity through  the  love  of  pure  womanhood?  Then  must 


THE  LESSONS  OF  WAGNER'S  WORKS  415 

we  also  condemn  the  uplifting  fable  of  Alkestis  and  empty 
our  vessels  of  contumely  not  only  upon  the  eighteenth-cen- 
tury Austrian  Gluck  and  his  French  librettist  but  also  upon 
Euripides,  in  whose  favor  the  statute  of  limitations  may 
surely  be  pleaded.  Is  there  aught  of  political  or  moral  ob- 
liquity in  "  Parsifal,"  whose  fundamental  thought  is  that  it 
is  the  enlightenment  which  comes  through  compassionate 
pity  that  brings  salvation  ?  Perhaps  "  Die  Meistersinger  von 
Niirnberg  "  falls  under  the  ban  because  it  is  in  its  externals 
so  peculiarly  German.  But  it  is  a  comedy  which  admirably 
illustrates  the  classical  definition,  "  Ridendo  castigat  mores," 
and  has  no  other  purpose  than  to  illustrate  the  conflict  be- 
tween the  regulative  and  creative  impulses  in  art — between 
classicism  and  romanticism  rightly  understood,  between 
conservatism  and  radicalism.  "  Lohengrin  ?  "  Alas  for 
proud  and  too  feminine  Elsa !  Alas,  also,  for  her  classic 
prototype  Psyche!  The  Knight  of  the  Grail  ought  not  to 
have  consumed  so  much  time  apostrophizing  the  balmy 
zephyrs  of  his  wedding  night,  giving  his  bride  opportunity 
to  grow  inquisitive ;  but  he  came  in  chivalric  pity  to  rescue 
a  damsel  in  distress.  Is  there  harm  in  our  contemplation 
of  his  dilatoriness  and  its  consequences?  Besides  though 
unfortunate  himself  in  his  adventure  he  rights  a  great 
wrong  and  sets  the  machinations  of  the  wicked  at  naught. 

The  man  Wagner,  then,  can  not  be  to  us  a  rock  of  of- 
fense, nor  can  the  ethical  aims  of  his  artistic  creations. 
What  remains?  Only  the  language  of  his  vocal  music 
which  has  become  hateful  because  of  the  conduct  of  the 
people  to  whom  it  is  the  vernacular.  Because  of  this  hatred 
we  were  asked  and  obliged  to  suffer  not  only  the  loss  of 
Wagner's  dramas  but  also  the  songs  of  Schubert,  Schu- 
mann, Brahms,  Franz,  and  other  German  lyricists — some 
of  the  most  exquisite  music  of  composers  who  wrote  long 
before  German  materialism  and  lust  of  material  conquest 
created  by  German  imperialism  had  crushed  out  the  crea- 
tive spirit  from  German  music.  Let  it  not  be  forgotten 


416          GERMAN  MUSIC  AND  GERMAN  POLITICS 

that  the  days  of  Germany's  greatness  in  literature  and 
music  were  antecedent  to  her  political  greatness.  The  soil 
of  Prussia,  and  Prussianized  Germany,  has  produced  little 
in  art  which  we  can  not  spare.  The  last  truly  great  Ger- 
man composer  in  the  line  of  succession  to  Haydn,  Mozart, 
Beethoven,  Schubert,  and  Schumann  who  lived  in  the 
days  of  the  modern  empire  was  Brahms ;  and  he  was  a  son 
of  the  once  free  city  of  Hamburg.  His  predecessors,  who 
had  laid  their  hands  on  his  head  in  apostolic  benediction, 
were  all  sons  of  petty  states.  The  Great  Dead  owed  noth- 
ing to  Germany  united  under  the  yoke  of  Prussia — neither 
the  poets  who  were  destroyed  by  those  whom  they  had 
compelled  to  emancipate  themselves,  nor  the  composers  who 
sang  in  blissful  indifference  to  the  political  conditions  which 
surrounded  them.  Only  one  among  them  all  took  an  in- 
terest in  politics — Beethoven,  who  loomed  up  in  his  own 
day  as  a  democrat,  willing  to  be  estranged  from  the  Rhine- 
land  in  which  he  was  born,  chafing  under  the  bonds  which 
held  him  in  Vienna,  damning  the  regime  which  gave  him  of 
its  bounty  that  it  might  share  his  glory,  and  admiring  the 
English  and  their  constitution  with  undisguised  admiration. 
"  You  have  heads  on  your  shoulders  in  England,"  said  he 
to  one  of  his  English  visitors,  and  on  his  deathbed  he  called 
for  a  reading  of  the  entire  speech  of  Canning  advocating 
a  recognition  of  the  South  American  Republics.  But  in 
1917-18  we  were  prohibited  from  listening  even  to  Bee- 
thoven's celebration  of  conjugal  love  and  fidelity,  because 
"  Fidelio  "  was  composed  to  German  words,  though  even  its 
plot  was  borrowed  from  the  French. 

In  the  season  which  has  last  been  passed  under  review 
the  public  of  New  York  heard  "  Martha  "  sung  in  Italian, 
as  they  had  been  accustomed  to  hear  it  for  so  many  years 
that  the  fact  that  it  is  a  German  opera  was  scarcely  known 
to  the  listening  generation,  and  Liszt's  "  St.  Elizabeth  "  sung 
in  English.  The  exigencies  of  grim  war,  therefore,  com- 
pelled a  change  from  the  policy  which  had  been  followed 


WHAT  OF  THE  FUTURE?  417 

with  reasonable  consistency  (there  being  such  exceptions  as 
the  Russian  "  Boris  Godounow  "  and  "  Prince  Igor  "  sung 
in  Italian  and  "  Le  Coq  d'Or"  in  French).  One  result, 
therefore,  may  be  an  approach,  at  least,  to  "  national  opera." 
Putting  aside  the  question  of  language,  it  was  sound  and 
sensible  as  well  as  proper  and  practical  to  put  a  tabu  upon 
enemy  aliens  as  far  as  possible  in  our  opera  house,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  by  retaining  and  remunerating  them 
Americans  were  putting  money  into  their  hands  which 
would  in  time  be  turned  into  aid  and  comfort  for  our 
enemies.  In  a  sense  it  was  merely  a  part  of  the  commercial 
warfare  which  must  follow  the  end  of  the  military.  If  it 
involves  something  of  a  sacrifice  of  artistic  excellence  for 
a  period  it  will  not  be  for  long  and  will  in  the  end  bring 
profit  in  the  recognition  and  development  of  our  own  re- 
sources. The  just  claims  of  our  native  talent,  creative  and' 
re-creative,  will  be  met. 


APPENDIX 

RECORDS  OF  THE  LAST  TWO  SEASONS 
AT  THE  MANHATTAN  OPERA  HOUSE 
AND  TEN  SEASONS,  1908-18,  AT  THE 
METROPOLITAN 


RECORD  OF  THE  LAST  TWO  SEASONS  AT  THE 
MANHATTAN 


SEASON  1908-1909 

Twenty  weeks  from  November  9,  1908,  to  March  27, 
1909.  Under  the  sole  management  of  Mr.  Oscar  Ham- 
merstein. 

TABLE  OF  PERFORMANCES 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Tosca  "    November    9 5 

"  Thais  "    November  n   7 

"  Samson  et  Dalila  "   November  13   6 

"  II  Barbiere  di  Siviglia  "   November  14  3 

"  Lucia  di  Lammermoor  "  November  18  7 

"  Gli  Ugonotti  "   November  20  2 

"  Carmen  "    November  26  2 

"  Le  Jongleur  de  Notre  Dame  ". .  November  27  7 

"  Cavalleria  Rusticana  "   December     4   5 

"  Pagliacci  "   December    4   5 

"  Rigoletto  "   December     5    5 

"  Traviata  "    December   12    5 

"  La  Boheme  "    December  14   5 

"  Les  Contes  d'Hoffmann  "  December   16   7 

"  Otello  "   December  25   6 

"  Pelleas  et  Melisande  "  January     6  4 

"  Crispino  e  la  Comare  "  January    9  3 

"  Salome  "    January  28   10 

"  Aida  "    February  10   2 

"  La   Sonnambula  "    February  13   3 

"  Louise  "    February  19  5 

"  I  Puritani  "  February  26  2 

"  II  Trovatore "    March     i    I 

"  Princesse  d'Auberge "  March   10   3 

"  La   Navarraise "    March  20   I 

421 


422  APPENDIX 

SUMMARY 

Total  number  of  performances   in 

Number  of  representations   104 

Total  number  of  operas  produced   25 

Operas  composed  in  Italian 14 

Operas  composed  in  French   9 

Opera  composed  in  German  i 

Opera  composed  in  Flemish  i 

The  difference  between  the  number  of  representations  and 
the  total  number  of  performances  of  the  different  operas 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  on  some  occasions  two  or  more  works 
were  produced  in  the  same  evening. 

SEASON  1909-1910 

Mr.  Hammerstein's  last  season,  for  an  account  of  which 
see  Chapter  V.  The  regular  season  began  on  November  8, 
1909,  and  ended  on  March  26,  1910.  There  had  been  a 
preliminary  season  from  August  30  to  October  30,  1909. 
The  record  embraces  the  regular  season  only : 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Herodiade  "     November    8  6 

'  Traviata  "    November  10  : .  4 

'  Aida  "   November  12  3 

'  Thais  "    November  13  6 

'  Cavalleria  Rusticana  "  November  13  4 

'  Pagliacci  "    November  13  8 

'  Lucia  di  Lammermoor  " November  16 7 

'La  Fille  de  Madame  Angot "..  November  16  2 

'  Sapho  "  November  17  3 

'  La  Fille  du  Regiment "   November  22  4 

'  La   Mascotte "    November  23  I 

'  Carmen  "    November  25  6 

'  Tosca  "   November  26 3 

'  Les  Dragons  des  Villars  "  November  27  2 

'  Le  Jongleur  de  Notre  Dame  ". .  December    4  5 

'  Les  Cloches  de  Corneville  " December     4  3 

'  Faust "    December     8  3 

'  Tannhauser "    December  10  3 

'  Les  Contes  d'Hoffmann  " December  25   8 

'  Trovatore  "   January    8  2 


APPENDIX  423 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  La  Boheme "    January  14  5 

"  Griselidis  "    January  ig  4 

"  Samson  et  Dalila  "  January  28  2 

"  Elektra  "    February     i   7 

'  Rigoletto  "    February  n   4 

'  Louise  "    February  23  2 

'  La  Navarraise  "  February  28  2 

'  Salome "    March     5    4 

'  Pelleas  et  Melisande  "    March   n    3 

'  Lakme  "   March  21    I 

Mixed  Bill   March  25    I 

After  the  conclusion  of  the  season  Mr.  Hammerstein  sold 
his  Philadelphia  Opera  House,  which  had  been  opened  a 
week  after  the  performances  began  in  New  York,  to  a  com- 
pany of  gentlemen  largely  interested  in  the  Metropolitan, 
and  entered  into  an  obligation  with  them  not  to  give  grand 
opera  in  New  York  City  for  ten  years.  It  seems  appro- 
priate, therefore,  to  print  the  following  tabular  record  of  his 
performances  during  his  four  years'  management  of  the 
Manhattan  Opera  House: 

FOUR  SEASONS  AT  THE  MANHATTAN 

1906-  1907-  1908-  1909- 

Opera  1907  1908  1909  1910 

"Aida"    12  9  2  3 

"  Andrea   Chenier "    o  i  o  o 

"  Ballo  in  Maschera "   2  4  o  o 

"Barbiere   di   Siviglia"    2  o  3  o 

"  Boheme "    4  o  5  5 

"  Cavalleria "    8  4  3  4 

"Carmen"    19  n  2  6 

"Contes  d'Hoffmann"    o  n  7  8 

"  Cloches  de  Corneville "    o  o  o  3 

"  Crispino  e  la  Comare "   o  3  3  o 

"  Damnation  de  Faust "  o  3  o  o 

"  Dinorah "    i  i  o  o 

"  Don   Giovanni "    4  3  °  ° 

"  Dragons  des  Villars "   o  o  o  2 

"  Elektra "     o  o  o  7 

"  Elisir  d'Amore "  3  o  o  o 

"  Ernani "    .  o  I  o  o 


424  APPENDIX 

1906-  1907-  1908-  1909- 

Opera  1907  1908  1909  1910 

"Faust"  7  4  o  3 

"  Fille  de  Mme.  Angot "  o  o  o  2 

"  Fille  du  Regiment "   o  o  o  2 

"  Fra  Diavolo "   4  o  o  o 

"Gioconda"   o  4  o  o 

"  Griselidis '' o  o  o  4 

"  Herodiade " o  o  o  6 

"  Huguenots "    5  o  2  o 

"  Jongleur  de  Notre  Dame "  o  o  7  5 

"  Lakme "    o  o  o  i 

"Louise"    o  it  5  2 

"  Lucia  di  Latnmermoor "  6  8  7  7 

"  Martha "   4  o  o  o 

"  Mascotte "    o  o  o  i 

"  Mignon "     3  o  o  o 

"  Navarraise "    2  5  i  2 

"Otello"    o  o  6  o 

"  Pagliacci "    10  9  5  8 

"  Pelleas  et  Melisande "  o  7  4  3 

"  Princesse  d' Auberge "   o  o  3  o 

"  Puritani " 2  o  2  o 

"Rigoletto"    ii  5  5  4 

"Salome" o  o  10  4 

"  Samson  et  Dalila "   o  o  6  2 

"  Siberia "    o  3  o  o 

"  Sapho "   o  o  o  3 

"  Sonnambula "    3  o  3  o 

"  Tannhauser "    o  o  o  3 

"  Thais "    o  7  7  6 

"Traviata"   3  5  5  4 

"  Tosca "    o  o  5  3 

"  Trovatore '     6  5  i  2 


TEN  SEASONS  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN 
OPERA  HOUSE 


SEASON  1908-1909 

Twenty-fourth  of  the  regular  subscription.  Twenty 
weeks  beginning  on  November  16,  1908,  and  ending  on 
April  19,  1909.  Under  the  joint  management  of  Giulio 
Gatti-Casazza  and  Andreas  Dippel.  An  extra  week  was 
added  for  performances  of  the  Wagnerian  tetralogy, 
"  Aida  "  and  "  Madama  Butterfly,"  and  this  week  is  included 
in  the  table. 


Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Aida  "    November  16  8 

"  Die  Walkure "   November  18  5 

"  Madama  Butterfly  "   November  19  8 

"  La  Traviata  "   Xovember  20  5 

"  Tosca  "    November  21   6 

"  La  Boheme  "   November  21   7 

"  Tiefland  "     November  23  4 

"  Parsifal  "     November  26  5 

"  Rigoletto  "    November  28  3 

"  Carmen  "    December     3    6 

"  Faust  "    December     5   7 

"  Gotterdammerung "    December  10   5 

"  Le  Villi  "  December   17   5 

"  Cavalleria    Rusticana "    December   17   7 

"  Lucia  di  Lammermoor "   December   19   2 

'  II  Trovatore "    December  21    5 

'  Tristan  und   Isolde  "   December  23    4 

'  L'Elisir  d'Amore  "   December  25    2 

'  Pagliacci "    December  26   5 

'  La  Wally  "   January     6  4 

"  Le  Nozze  di  Figaro "   January  13   6 

"  Die   Meistersinger "    January  22   5 

"  Manon  "   , February    3  6 

425 


426  APPENDIX 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

'  Tannhauser  "    February    5   7 

'  The  Bartered  Bride "   February  19  6 

'  Fidelio  "   February  20  I 

'  Falstaff  "    March  20   3 

'  Don  Pasquale "   March  24   i 

'  II  Barbiere  di  Siviglia "  March  25   2 

'  Siegfried "   March  27   2 

'  Das  Rheingold  "   April    5  i 

SUMMARY 

Subscription  weeks   2O 

Extra  week i 

Regular  performances   (afternoons  and  evenings)    120 

Special  representations  of  the  drama  in  "  The  Ring  "  4 

Special  benefit  and  holiday  performances   10 

Italian  operas  in  the  repertory   17 

German  operas  in  the  repertory  10 

French  operas   in  the  repertory   3 

Bohemian  opera  I 

Italian  representations   79 

German  representations  45 

French  representations  19 

Oratorio  performance  on  an  opera  night  i 

Double  bills 2 

Novelties  produced  4 

Fifteen  performances  were  also  given  in  Brooklyn, 
twenty-four  in  Philadelphia  and  four  in  Baltimore.  The 
last  city  and  Brooklyn  were  privileged  to  hear  "  Hansel  und 
Gretel,"  which  was  denied  the  metropolis.  The  operas  given 
in  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn  were :  "  Faust,"  "  Rigoletto,'; 
"  Die  Walkiire,"  "  Tiefland,"  "  Mma.  Butterfly,"  "  II  Trova- 
tore,"  "  Carmen,"  "  Cavalleria  Rusticana  "  and  "  Pagliacci," 
"  Le  Nozze  di  Figaro,"  "  Hansel  und  Gretel,"  "  Meister- 
singer,"  "La  Traviata,"  "The  Bartered  Bride,"  "Aida," 
and  "  La  Boheme." 


SEASON  1909-1910 

Twenty-fifth  regular  subscription  season.    Twenty  weeks 
beginning  November  15,  1909,  ending  April  2,  1910.    Giulio 


APPENDIX  427 

Gatti-Casazza,  General  Manager,  Andreas  Dippel,  Adminis- 
trative Director.  There  were  also  a  subscription  season  of 
twenty  representations  in  Brooklyn,  two  performances  each 
week  at  the  New  Theater,  many  special  performances  and 
subscription  seasons  in  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  Boston. 
Because  of  this  unexampled  activity,  New  York  never  hav- 
ing been  so  overburdened  with  opera  in  its  history  before 
or  since,  I  make  a  detailed  tabulated  statement. 

SUBSCRIPTION  SEASON  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  La  Gioconda "    November  15  5 

"  Otello  "     November  17  6 

"  La  Traviata  "  November  18  3 

"  Madama  Butterfly "   November  19  6 

"  Lohengrin  "   November  20  6 

"  La  Boheme  "    November  20  6 

"  Tosca  "   November  23  6 

"  Cavalleria  Rusticana  "   November  24  7 

"  Pagliacci  "    November  24  7 

"  II  Trovatore  " November  25  6 

"  Tristan  und  Isolde  "   November  27  5 

"  Aida  "   December    3   6 

"  Tannhauser  "    December    4  4 

"  Manon  "    December     6   3 

"  Siegfried  "     December  16   2 

"  Orfeo  ed  Eurydice "    December  23    5 

"  The  Bartered  Bride "   December  24   i 

"  Faust  "    December  25    5 

"  Rigoletto "    December  25    2 

"  Die  Walkiire  "   January     8  3 

"  II  Barbiere  di  Siviglia "   January  15   3 

"  Germania  "    January  22   5 

"  L'Elisir  d'Amore  "    January  27   i 

"  Hansel  und   Gretel "    January  29   I 

"  Don   Pasquale  "    February    2  2 

"  Stradella  "    February     3  2 

"  Fra  Diavolo  "  February     5   3 

"  Falstaff  "    February  16  2 

"  Das  Rheingold  "    February  24  I 

"  Werther  "     February  28  2 

"  Gotterdammerung "    March     4   I 

"  Pique  Dame  "  March     5   4 


428  APPENDIX 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Der  Freischiitz "  March  n    2 

"  The  Pipe  of  Desire "  March  18  2 

"  Die  Meistersinger  "    March  26   2 

"  La  Sonnambula  " April     2   I 

SUMMARY 

Weeks  in  the  season  20 

Subscription  performances  120 

Number  of  operas  produced   36 

German  operas   1 1 

Bohemian  opera  i 

Russian  opera  I 

English  opera  : . . .     I 

Italian  operas   18 

French  operas  4 

German  performances   34 

French  performances   13 

Italian   performances    79 

English  performances    2 

Double  bills  (including  ballets  and  divertissements)    23 

Number  of  ballets 2 

Performances  of  complete  ballets  6 

EXTRA  REPRESENTATIONS  AT  THE  METROPOLITAN 
OPERA  HOUSE 

"  Parsifal,"  Thanksgiving  matinee,  November  25. 

"  Hansel  und  Gretel,"  special  matinees,  December  21  and  28. 

"  La  Boheme,"  benefit  of  Italian  charities,  January  4. 

"  Manon,"  benefit  of  French  charities,  January  18. 

"  Das  Rheingold,"  serial  matinees  of  "  Der  Ring,"  January  24, 

"  Die  Walkure,"  serial  matinees  of  "  Der  Ring,"  January  27. 

"  Siegfried,"  serial  matinees  of  "  Der  Ring,"  January  28. 

"  Gotterdammerung,"  serial  matinees  of  "  Der  Ring,"  February  i. 

"  Stradella,"  benefit  of  German  Press  Club,  February  15. 

"  Vienna  Waltzes,"  ballet,  benefit  of  German  Press  Club,  Febru- 
ary 15. 

"  Parsifal,"  special  matinee  on  Washington's  birthday,  February  22. 

"  La  Gioconda,"  benefit  of  Italian  charities,  February  22. 

Mixed  bill,  benefit  of  Opera  House  Pension  Fund,  March  i. 

"  Aida  "  and  ballet  divertissement,  benefit  of  the  Legal  Aid  Society, 
March  15. 

"  Hansel  und  Gretel "  and  "  Coppelia,"  ballet,  special  matinee, 
March  15. 

"  Parsifal,"  Good  Friday  matinees,  March  25. 


APPENDIX  429 

SUMMARY 

Total  number  of  extra  performances   16 

German  operas   7 

German    representations    1 1 

French   opera    i 

French  representation  I 

Italian  operas    3 

Italian  representations   3 

Miscellaneous   programme    i 

Double  bills  (operas,  ballets,  and  divertissements)    5 

PERFORMANCES  AT  THE  NEW  THEATER 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

'  Werther  "     November  16  4 

'  The  Bartered  Bride  " November  17  2 

'  II  Barbiere  di  Siviglia  "   November  25   3 

'  Czar  und  Zimmermann  "    November  30  4 

'  II  Maestro  di  Capella  "    December     9   3 

'  Cavalleria    Rusticana"    December     9   3 

'La  Fille  de  Madame  Angot".  .  December  14   4 

'  Don  Pasquale "    December  23    3 

'  Pagliacci  "    January     6  2 

"  Fra  Diavolo  "  January  1 1    2 

"  Manon  "    February     3  I 

"  L'Elisir  d'Amore "  February    4  I 

'  L'Attaque  du  Moulin  "   February     8  4 

'  La  Boheme  "    February  17  2 

'  Stradella  "    February  22  I 

'  Madama  Butterfly "   March     4   i 

'Tosca"   .March  22    i 

'  La   Sonnambula "    March  23    I 

'  The  Pipe  of  Desire "   March  31    I 

SUMMARY 

Number  of  performances  40 

Number  of  operas  produced  19 

German  operas  2 

Bohemian  opera   I 

English  opera   I 

Italian  operas   9 

French  operas  9 

French  operas  6 

German  representations  7 

French  representations  15 


430  APPENDIX 

Italian  representations  20 

English  representation  I 

Double  bills  (including  ballets  and  divertissements)    15 

Pantomime     i 

Ballets    3 

THE  BROOKLYN  SEASON 

Date  of 
Opera  Performance 

"  Manon  "   November  8 

"  Tannhauser  "    November  15 

"  Madama  Butterfly  "  November  22 

"  Tosca  "  November  29 

'  Lohengrin  "     December  6 

'  Martha  "    December  13 

'  II  Trovatore  "   December  20 

'II  Maestro  di  Capella"  and  "  Pagliacci  "   January  3 

'  Aida  "   January  17 

'  Faust "    January  27 

'  Fra  Diavolo  " January  31 

'  Stradella  "  and  divertissement  February  7 

'  L'Attaque  du  Moulin  "  February  13 

'  La  Boheme  "   , February  21 

'  Otello  "  February  28 

'  La  Gioconda  "   March  7 

'  II  Barbiere  "  and  divertissement  March  14 

'  Rigoletto  "  March  21 

'  Der  Freischiitz  "  March  29 

'  Madama.  Butterfly  "  and  "  Hungary  "  (ballet) April  4 

The  following  table  offers  an  analytical  summary  of  the 
entire  season : 

Subscription   performances    160 

Total   performances    197 

Operas  produced   41 

German  operas  produced   13 

Italian  operas  produced   18 

French  operas  produced   7 

Bohemian  opera  produced   i 

Russian  opera  produced I 

English  opera  produced i 

German   representations    56 

Italian  representations   115 

French   representations    23 

English  representations   3 

Double  bills  (including  ballets  and  divertissements)    48 

Performances  of  complete  ballets  12 


APPENDIX  431 

SEASON  1910-1911 

Twenty-sixth  season  of  the  subscription.  Twenty  weeks 
beginning  November  14,  1910,  and  ending  on  April  15,  1911. 
Table  including  extra  performances,  a  subscription  by  the 
Philadelphia-Chicago  Company,  and  performances  in 
Brooklyn : 

REGULAR  METROPOLITAN  SUBSCRIPTION 
PERFORMANCES 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

'  Armide  "    November  14  3 

'  Tannhauser  "    November  16  5 

'  Aida  "    November  17  6 

'  Walkiire  "    November  18  4 

'  Madama  Butterfly "   November  19  5 

'  La  Boheme "    November  21   5 

'  Gioconda  "  November  23   6 

'  Rigoletto  "   November  24  3 

'  Cavalieria  Rusticana "   November  25   5 

'  Pagliacci  "    November  25  7 

'  Lohengrin  "   November  28  5 

'  Trovatore "    December     I    5 

'  Faust  "    December   10   4 

'  Orfeo  ed  Eurydice "   December   10   5 

'  La  Fanciulla  del  West "  December  26   7 

'  Konigskinder "  December  28   7 

'  Tristan  und  Isolde  "   January     4   4 

'  Romeo  et  Juliette "   January  13   2 

'Siegfried"   January   14   I 

'  Meistersinger  "     January  20   4 

'  Germania "    February     i    2 

'  Traviata "    February     2   2 

'  Tosca  "    February     8  5 

'  The  Bartered  Bride "    February  15   4 

'  Otello  "  February  27   5 

'  Ariane  et  Barbe-Bleue "    March   29    4 

'  Hansel  und   Gretel "    April     6    6 

Mixed  Bill   April     6    I 

There  were  ten  Saturday  evening  subscription  representa- 
tions at  regular  prices,  one  of  which,  "  Thai's,"  was  given 


432  APPENDIX 

by  the  Chicago  Company.  Also  twenty-six  performances 
outside  of  the  subscription,  at  which  "  Parsifal  "  (on  No- 
vember 24),  "Das  Rheingold  "  (February  2),  and  "  Got- 
terdammerung  "  (February  22),  which  were  not  in  the  sub- 
scription list,  and  twelve  other  operas  and  a  mixed  bill  were 
given. 

GRAND  SUMMARY  OF  THE  METROPOLITAN  COMPANY 

Total  representations  (including  double  and  mixed  bills)    141 

Italian  operas    14 

German  operas   7 

French  operas 3 

Bohemian  opera   (sung  in  German)    I 

Performances  in  Italian   77 

Performances  in  German   40 

Performances  in  French  1 1 

The  Metropolitan  Opera  Company  also  gave  fourteen 
representations,  one  of  a  double  bill,  bringing  forward  the 
following  operas :  "  II  Trovatore,"  "  Orfeo,"  "  Tannhauser," 
"  Cavalleria  Rusticana  "  with  "  Pagliacci,"  "  Lohengrin," 
"  Konigskinder,"  "  La  Boheme,"  "  Rigoletto,"  "  Butterfly," 
"  Tosca,"  "  Aida,"  "  Otello,"  "  Parsifal,"  and  "  The  Girl  of 
the  Golden  West,"  in  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn. 

There  was  an  extra  subscription  season  by  the  Phila- 
delphia-Chicago Company  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House 
which  made  the  following  showing: 

SUBSCRIPTION  SEASON  OF  THE  PHILADELPHIA- 
CHICAGO  COMPANY 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

'  Thais  "    January  24  i 

'  Louise  "    January  31    2 

'  Pelleas  et  Melisande "   February     7  i 

'  Les  Contes  d'Hoffmann "    February  14  I 

'  Carmen  "    February  21    I 

'  Natoma  "  (once  in  double  bill)  .  February  28  3 

'  II    Segreto    di    Susanna "    (in 

double  bill)    March   14   2 


APPENDIX  433 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Le  Jongleur  de  Notre  Dame  " 

(in  double  bill)    March   14   i 

"  Quo  Vadis  "   April     4    I 

Eleven  subscription  evenings,  one  extra,  nine  operas,  three 
double  bills. 


SEASON  1911-1912 

Twenty-seventh  subscription  season,  twenty-two  weeks 
from  November  13,  1911,  to  April  13,  1912.  There  were 
no  subscription  representations  and  thirty-nine  extra  per- 
formances, included  in  which  were  three  representations  of 
"  Parsifal  "  on  Thanksgiving  Day,  New  Year's  Day,  and 
Good  Friday.  "  Das  Rheingold  "  and  "  Gotterdammerung," 
which  were  not  included  in  the  subscription  season,  were  in- 
cluded in  the  cyclical  representation  of  "  The  Ring  of  the 
Nibelung."  Two  other  German  operas  which  were  in  the 
subscription  repertory  had  special  performances :  "  Hansel 
und  Gretel,"  5,  and  "  Konigskinder,"  3. 

METROPOLITAN  SUBSCRIPTION  SEASON 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Alda  "   November  13  5 

"  Konigskinder  "     November  15   4 

"  La  Fanciulla  del  West "  November  16  5 

"  Tristan  und  Isolde "    November  17  5 

"  Lobetanz  "    November  18  5 

"  Madama    Butterfly  "    November  20  5 

"  Faust "    November  22   3 

"  Gotterdammerung  "    November  23   2 

"  Cavalleria    Rusticana  "    November  24  3 

"  Pagliacci  "    November  24  6 

"  Lohengrin  "   November  25   4 

"  Gioconda "   November  29  5 

"  Trovatore  "    November  30  3 

"  Hansel  und  Gretel  "  December     4    2 

"  Tosca  "    December   n    4 

"Armide"    .  December  16   4 


434  APPENDIX 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  La  Boheme "   December  23   5 

"  Orfeo  ed  Eurydice "   December  25   5 

"  Lucia  di  Lammermoor "    December  27   3 

"  Siegfried  "   December  30   2 

"  Le  Donne  curiose  "   January    3   5 

"  Rigoletto "   January  n    2 

"  Versiegelt  "   January  20   4 

"  Ariane  et  Barbe-Bleue "  January  31    3 

"  Tannhauser  "    February  17  3 

"  Otello  "   •. . .  February  21   4 

"  The  Bartered  Bride "    February  23   2 

"  Die  Walkiire "   February  26  4 

"  Meistersinger  "    March     6   3 

"  Mona  "    March   14 4 

"  Manon  "   March  30   3 


GRAND  SUMMARY 

Total    representations    148 

Italian  operas    '. 19 

German  operas   1 1 

French  operas  4 

English  opera   I 

Bohemian  opera  i 

Total  operas   36 

Performances  in  Italian    77 

Performances  in  German   58 

Performances  in  French   13 

Performances  in  English   4 

Double  bills  4 

Mixed  bill    I 

There  were  also  performances  by  the  Metropolitan  Com- 
pany in  Brooklyn  as  follows :  "  Madama  Butterfly,"  "  II 
Trovatore,"  "  Hansel  und  Gretel,"  "  Cavalleria  Rusticana  " 
and  "Lobetanz,"  "Lohengrin,"  "La  Boheme,"  "Tann- 
hauser," "Faust,"  "Pagliacci,"  "Siegfried,"  "  Tosca," 
"  The  Bartered  Bride,"  "  Otello,"  "  Konigskinder,"  "  Aida," 
"  Die  Walkiire." 

Also  performances  by  the  Philadelphia-Chicago  Com- 
pany at  the  Metropolitan.  For  an  account  of  these  per- 
formances see  Chapter  X. 


APPENDIX  435 

SEASON   1912-1913 

Twenty-eighth  subscription  season,  twenty-three  weeks  be- 
ginning November  n,  1912,  and  ending  April  19,  1913. 
Giulio  Gatti-Casazza,  General  Manager.  Table  of  the  sub- 
scription and  general  lists  together  with  the  operas  given  in 
Brooklyn : 

THE  SUBSCRIPTION  SEASON 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Manon  Lescaut  "  November  1 1    5 

'  Tannhauser  "    November  13  5 

'  Gioconda "   November  14  3 

4  Madama  Butterfly "   November  15  5 

'  Gotterdammerung "    November  16  3 

'  Konigskinder  "     November  18  5 

'  Cavalleria  Rusticana "   November  20  3 

'  Pagliacci  "    November  20  5 

4  Faust  "    Xovember  21   .- 3 

'  Die  Zauberflote  "    November  23   5 

4  La  Fanciulla  del  West "  November  25   4 

'  Trovatore  "    November  27  3 

'  Boheme  "    November  28  5 

'  Hansel  und  Gretel  "  November  30  2 

'  Meistersinger  "  December     6   4 

'  Alda  "    December     9   3 

II  Segreto  di  Susanna "   December   13    3 

Die  Walkiire "   December   14 4 

Orfeo  ed  Eurydice "   December   19   2 

Gli  Ugonotti "    December  27    5 

Tristan  und  Isolde  "    December  30   5 

II  Barbiere  di   Siviglia "    January     i    3 

Tosca "    January     4  5 

Otello "   January     6  3 

'  Les  Contes  d'Hoffmann "    January   1 1    5 

Siegfried "   January  17   I 

4  Manon  "    January  22   4 

'  Traviata  "    January  29   3 

'  Le  Donne  curiose  "   February     5   3 

'  Cyrano  de  Bergerac "   February  27  5 

'  Lohengrin  "  March   17    2 

'  Boris   Godounow "    March    19    4 

4  Don  Pasquale  "   April     5    2 


436  APPENDIX 

To  arrive  at  the  sum  total  of  the  season's  activities  there 
must  be  added  the  customary  list  of  benefit  and  holiday  per- 
formances together  with  those  arranged  for  what  used  to  be 
called  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House's  pension  fund.  Of 
these  performances,  numbering  thirty-seven,  eighteen  were 
in  German,  seventeen  Italian,  and  five  in  French.  The  Grand 
Summary  for  the  season  barring  the  performances  of  the 
Chicago  Company,  which  will  be  found  discussed  in  their 
proper  places,  and  fourteen  performances  in  Brooklyn  from 
the  conventional  list,  reads  as  follows : 

GRAND  SUMMARY 

Regular  subscription  performances  115 

Subscription  Saturday  Nights  12 

Subscription  "  Nibelung "  performances    4 

Special   benefits    7 

Extra  performances 14 

Total  performances    152 

Total  number  of  operas  performed  36 

Operas  composed  in  Italian  17 

Operas  composed  in  German   12 

Operas  composed  in  French   4 

Opera  composed  in  English  i 

Opera  composed  in  Russian  I 

Italian  performances    86 

German  performances    54 

French  performances   16 

English  performances    5 

Double  bills  13 

Mixed  bills    2 

SEASON   1913-1914 

Twenty-ninth  subscription  season.  Twenty-three  weeks 
from  November  17,  1913,  to  April  25,  1914.  Giulio  Gatti- 
Casazza,  sole  manager. 

THE  SUBSCRIPTION  SEASON 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  La  Gioconda "   November  17  4 

"  Zauberflote  "   November  19  5 


APPENDIX  437 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  La  Boheme  November  20  5 

"  Lohengrin  "   November  21   5 

"  Un  Ballo  in  Maschera "  November  22   5 

"  Madama  Butterfly  "   November  24  4 

"  Lucia  di  Lammermoor  "  November  26  i 

"  Manon  Lescaut "  November  27  4 

"  Boris  Godounow  "    November  28  5 

"  Siegfried  "  December    4   3 

"  Cavalleria  Rusticana  "   December     5    2 

"  Pagliacci  "    December     5   5 

"  Les  Contes  d'Hoffmann  "  December     6    2 

"  Aida  "   December     8   4 

"  Tannhauser  "    December  12    2 

"  Der  Rosenkavalier  "  December  18   5 

"  Tosca  "    December   19    6 

"  Die  Walkiire  "   December  20   5 

"  Tristan  und  Isolde  "   December  24   4 

"  Manon  "    December  31    4 

"  La  Traviata "   January     i    4 

"  L'Amore  dei  tre  Re  "   January     2   5 

"  Konigskinder  "     January     8   5 

"  Die  Meistersinger  "    January  15   4 

"  Madeleine  "    January  24   4 

"  La  Fanciulla  del  West "  February    4   3 

"  Don  Pasquale  "    February     5   2 

"  Julien  "    February  26  5 

"  Gotterdammerung  "    February  28  2 

"  Orfeo  ed  Eurydice  " March     2    3 

"  L'Amore  Medico  "  *  March   25    4 

"  Hansel  und  Gretel "  *   March   26    2 

"  II  Segreto  di  Susanna  "  *  March  30    3 

*  Operas  given  only  in  double  bills. 

As  indicative  of  the  manager's  differentiation  between 
the  taste  of  his  subscribers  and  that  of  the  general  public 
invited  to  patronize  the  representations  outside  of  the  sub- 
scription, a  record  of  the  extra  performances  must  be  ex- 
amined. The  subscription  compassed  115  representations,  in 
ii  of  which  there  were  double  bills.  There  were,  therefore, 
1 26  operatic  performances — 69  in  Italian,  42  in  German,  n  in 
French,  and  4  in  English.  "  Parsifal  "  was  reserved  for  the 
holidays  as  in  the  preceding  seasons.  "  Der  Rosenkavalier," 
a  novelty,  had  its  first  performance  on  December  9  and  was 


438  APPENDIX 

then  incorporated  into  the  subscription  repertory  and  had 
two  later  representations  in  the  extra  list.  "  Hansel  und 
Gretel,"  withheld  this  season  from  the  subscribers,  had  four 
performances.  "  Das  Rheingold  "  figured  only  in  the  cus- 
tomary "  Nibelung  "  cycle.  "  Faust  "  had  a  single  per- 
formance on  a  Saturday  evening  at  popular  prices.  The 
remainder  of  the  extra  39  representations  were  of  operas  in 
the  subscription  list. 

GRAND  SUMMARY 

Regular  subscription  representations   115 

Extra  representations  39 

Double  bills  15 

Mixed  bills    2 

Total  operatic  performances   167 

Performances  in  Italian 88 

Performances  in  German   63 

Performances  in  French  12 

Performances  in  English   4 

Operas  by  Italian  composers  (including  Gluck)    17 

Operas  by  German  composers  13 

Operas  by  French  composers  (including  Offenbach)    4 

Opera  by  American  (naturalized)  composer  I 

Opera  by  Russian  composer I 

The  activities  of  the  Chicago  Company  in  New  York  may 
be  studied  in  their  proper  place.  The  operas  performed  in 
Brooklyn  were  fourteen,  viz. :  "  Boheme,"  "  Faust,"  "  Les 
Contes  d'Hoffmann,"  "  Traviata,"  "  Tannhauser,"  "  K6- 
nigskinder,"  "  Madeleine,"  "  Pagliacci  "  (double  bill),  "  Der 
Rosenkavalier,"  "  Aida,"  "  Tosca,"  "Lohengrin,"  "  Gio- 
conda,"  "  Die  Walkiire,"  and  "  Orfeo  ed  Eurydice." 


SEASON  1914-1915 

Thirtieth  subscription  season,  twenty-three  weeks  from 
November  16,  1914,  to  April  24,  1915.  Giulio  Gatti- 
Casazza,  general  manager. 


APPENDIX 


THE  SUBSCRIPTION  SEASON 


439 


Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Un  Ballo  in  Maschera  "  *  November  16  2 

"  Lohengrin  "   November  18  4 

"  Carmen  "    November  19  5 

"  Rosenkavalier  "    November  20  5 

"  La  Boheme  "  *   November  21   6 

"  Die   Zauberflote  "    November  23  5 

"  La  Gioconda "    November  25  2 

"  La  Traviata  "   November  26  4 

"  Boris   Godounow  "    November  28  5 

"  Madama  Butterfly  "   November  30  5 

"  Tristan  und  Isolde "    December     3    4 

'  Tosca  "    December     4    5 

'  Cavalleria  Rusticana  "  f    December     5    2 

'  Pagliacci  "  t    December     5    6 

'  Die  Walkiire "   December   n    5 

1  Euryanthe  "   December   19   4 

'  Ai'da "    December  23    5 

'  Manon  "    December  24    3 

'  Tannhauser  "    December  25    4 

'  Les  Huguenots  "   December  30    3 

'  Manon    Lescaut  "    January      I     3 

'  Siegfried  "     January     9 2 

'  Madame   Sans-Gene "    January  25    5. 

'  Fidelio  "    January  30   5 

'  L'Oracolo  "  t     February     4  5 

'  L' Amore  dei  tre  Re  "   February  n   5 

'  II  Trovatore "    February  20   5 

'  Die   Meistersinger "    March   12    3 

"  Gotterdammerung  "    March    18    i 

"  Iris  "    April      i    4 

*  Once  in  a  double  bill.  t  In  double  bills  only. 

The  operas  which  had  performances  only  in  the  extra  list 
were  "Parsifal"  (four  times),  "Das  Rheingold  "  (once), 
and  "Hansel  und  Gretel  "  (four  times). 

GRAND  SUMMARY 

Regular   subscription   performances    .115 

Extra  performances    36 

Double  bills   12 

Mixed  bills    .  2 


440  APPENDIX 

Total  number  of  performances   151 

Total  number  of  representations  of  different  operas  165 

Operas  by  Italian  composers  15 

Operas  by  German  composers  13 

Operas  by  French  composers   (including  Meyerbeer)    3 

Opera  by  Russian  composer  i 

Performances  in  Italian   92 

Performances  in  German   58 

Performances  in  French  12 

At  the  Opera  House  in  Brooklyn  the  operas  performed 
were  "  Manon  Lescaut,"  "  Cavalleria  Rusticana  "  and  "  Pa- 
gliacci,"  "Lohengrin,"  "La  Boheme,"  "Die  Zauberflote," 
"  La  Traviata,"  "  Euryanthe,"  "  Carmen,"  "  Tosca,"  "  Aida," 
"  Tannhauser,"  "  Madama  Butterfly,"  "  L'Oracolo,"  and 
"  Hansel  und  Gretel." 

SEASON  1915-1916 

Thirty-first  subscription  season  at  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House.  Twenty  weeks  of  opera  from  November  15, 

1915,  after  which  the  house  was  given  over  till  April  29, 

1916,  to  the  Diaghileff  Ballet  Russe.    The  season  under  the 
sole  management  of  Giulio  Gatti-Casazza. 

TABLE  OF  THE  SUBSCRIPTION  PERFORMANCES 

Opera                                First  Performance  Times 

"  Samson  et  Dalila  "  November  15  5 

"  Boris  Godounow  "    November  17  5 

'  Gotterdammerung  "    November  18  2 

'  La  Boheme "   November  19  4 

'  Der   Rosenkavalier  "    November  20 5 

'  II  Barbiere  di  Siviglia "  November  25   3 

'  Lohengrin  "  November  26  4 

'  Tosca  "   November  27  3 

'  Tristan  und  Isolde "   December     i    4 

'  Cavalleria  Rusticana  " December     2  2 

'  Pagliacci "   December     2   3 

'  Trovatore  "   December     4  3 

'  Die  Zauberflote  "  December     8   4 

'  Aida "   December     9   3 

'  Marta  "  December  n    4 


APPENDIX  441 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Manon  "   December  15   I 

"  Die  Walkure  "   December  16   3 

"  Traviata  "    December  22    2 

"  Prince  Igor  "   December  30   5 

"  Madama  Butterfly "   December  31    2 

"  Un   Ballo  in   Maschera "    January     i    2 

"  Manon  Lescaut  "  January     6   3 

'  Meistersinger  "   January     7   3 

'Siegfried"   January  15    2 

'  Hansel  und  Gretel "  January  19   2 

'  Goyescas  "    January  28   4 

'  Lucia  di  Lammermoor  "  January  31    4 

'  Rigoletto  "    February  u    5 

'  Carmen  "    February  17   5 

'  Das   Rheingold  "    February  18   .- 2 

'  La   Sonnambula "    March     3    2 

'  Der    Widerspanstigen    Zah- 

mung "    March    15    2 

"  Madame  Sans-Gene "    March   17   2 

There  were  100  subscription  representations  and  106  per- 
formances in  all,  two  of  them  offering  double  bills.  The 
performances  in  Italian,  German,  and  French  respectively 
were  58,  33,  and  n  in  number.  The  representations  out- 
side of  the  subscription  numbered  28,  two  of  them  made  up 
of  double  bills  and  one  of  a  mixed  bill,  which  was  the  cus- 
tomary offering  at  the  representation  for  the  benefit  of  the 
emergency  fund.  "  Parsifal,"  which  had  two  perform- 
ances, was  the  only  opera  in  the  extra  list  not  included  in 
the  subscription. 

GRAND  SUMMARY 

Italian  composers  represented   8 

German  composers  represented    6 

French  composers  represented   3 

Russian  composers  represented    2 

Spanish  composer  represented    I 

Performances  in  Italian    72 

Performances  in  German    47 

Performances  in  French  n 

Performances  in  Spanish   5 


442  APPENDIX 

Double  bills  presented  8 

Mixed  bills  presented   i 

Total  number  of  operas  presented 34 

Total  number  of  evenings  and  afternoons  128 

Total  number  of  full  operatic  performances   136 

The  operas  given  in  Brooklyn  were  "  II  Trovatore," 
"  Boris  Godounow,"  "  Die  Zauberflote,"  "  La  Boheme,"  "  II 
Barbiere,"  "  Aida,"  "  Tristan  und  Isolde,"  "  Manon,"  "  Die 
Meistersinger,"  and  "  Lucia  di  Lammermoor." 

SEASON  1916-1917 

Thirty-second  -  subscription  season ;  twenty-three  weeks 
from  November  13,  1916,  to  April  21,  1917 — 115  representa- 
tions. Giulio  Gatti-Casazza,  General  Manager. 

TABLE  OF  SUBSCRIPTION  PERFORMANCES 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Les  Pecheurs  de  Perles  " November  13  3 

"  Tristan  und  Isolde "   November  15  5 

"  Manon  Lescaut "  November  16  2 

"  Der  Rosenkavalier  "  November  17  3 

"  Prince  Igor  "   November  18  2 

"  Aida  "   November  18  4 

"  Die   Zauberflote  "    November  20  2 

"  Trovatore  "   November  23  4 

"  Samson  et  Daliln "   November  24  3 

"  Iphigenia  auf  Tauris  "   November  25   6 

"  Boris   Godounow  "    November  27  3 

"  Traviata  "    November  29  2 

"  La  Boheme  "   November  30  4 

"  Lohengrin  "   December     I    4 

"  Tosca  "   December     4   5 

"  Fidelio  "   December    9   3 

"  Cavalleria  Rusticana "  December   15    2 

"  Pagliacci "   December  15   4 

"  Francesca  da  Rimini  "  December  22   5 

'  Marta  "    December  25   3 

'  L'Elisir  d'Amore "   December  30   5 

'  Madama  Butterfly  "   January     i    3 

'  Das  Rheingold "    January     4  I 

'  Carmen "    January    5   5 


APPENDIX  443 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Die  Meistersinger "   January  17   4 

"  Siegfried  "  January  20  2 

"  Le  Nozze  di  Figaro  "  .*.  January  24   3 

'  Rigoletto  "    February     7  4 

'  Die  Walkiire  "   February    8  2 

'  Thais  "    February  16  5 

'  II  Barbiere  "   February  22  I 

'  Lucia  di  Lammermoor  "  February  28   I 

'  Madame   Sans-Gene  "    March     2    3 

'The  Canterbury  Pilgrims"    March     8    5 

'  Lakme  "    March  24   3 

'  L'Oracolo  "    March  31    2 

Besides  the  subscription  performances  there  were  34 
representations  for  benefits,  etc.,  and  the  annual  cyclical 
representation  of  the  dramas  composing  "  The  Ring  of  the 
Nibelung,"  besides  "Parsifal"  and  "Hansel  und  Gretel." 
Including  these  extra  performances  we  arrive  at  the  fol- 
lowing 

GRAND  SUMMARY 

Italian  composers  represented  9 

German  composers  represented 6 

French  composers  represented   4 

Russian  composers  represented 2 

American  composer  represented  I 

Operas  by  Italian  composers  16 

Operas  by  German  composers  13 

Operas  by  French  composers   5 

Operas  by  Russian  composers  2 

Opera  by  American   composer    I 

Performances  in  Italian    78 

Performances  in  German    45 

Performances  in  French   25 

Performances  in  English    6 

Double  bills   5 

Mixed  bill    i 

Total  number  of  operas  presented    39 

Total  number  of  performances  of  different  operas   154 

T^tal  number  of  representations   149 

The  operas  given  in  Brooklyn  were  "  Boris  Godounow." 
"La  Boheme,"  "  Cavalleria,"  and  "  Pagliacci,"  "  Lohen- 


444  APPENDIX 

grin,"  "  Tosca,"  "  Aida,"  "  Carmen,"  "  Tristan  und  Isolde," 
"  Lucia  di  Lammermoor,"  "  Marta,"  and  "  Tha'is." 


SEASON  1917-1918 

The  war  wrought  so  great  a  change  in  the  character  of 
the  repertory  of  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House  in  this,  the 
thirty-third,  subscription  season,  that  it  was  thought  un- 
necessary, because  uninstructive  touching  the  public  taste,  to 
distinguish  in  the  tabulation  of  the  performances  between  the 
regular  subscription  performances  and  those  given  for  bene- 
fits and  on  special  occasions.  The  season  covered  the  usual 
twenty-three  weeks,  began  on  November  12,  1917,  and  ended 
on  April  6,  1918.  Mr.  Giulio  Gatti-Casazza  was  the  sole 
manager. 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  Aida "   November  12  8 

"  Boris   Godounow "    November  14   6 

"  L'Elisir  d'Amore  "   November  15  5 

"  La  Boheme "   November  16  5 

"  Faust  "    November  17  6 

"  Traviata "    November  17  3 

"  Tosca  "   November  19  6 

"  Marta  "  November  21   5 

"  Madama  Butterfly  "   November  22  6 

"  Samson  et  Dalila "  November  23  4 

"  Francesca  da  Rimini "  November  24  4 

"  Carmen  "    November  29  7 

"  Prince  Igor  "   November  30  2 

"  Trovatore  "   December     i    3 

"  Manon  Lescaut "  December     5   4 

"  Cavalleria  Rusticana "  December     7   5 

"  Pagliacci  "   December     7    5 

"  La  Figlia  del  Reggimento  "  ....  December  17   5 

"  Marouf  "    December   19   6 

"  Nozze  di  Figaro  "  December  22   2 

"  L'Oracolo  "    December  22   6 

"  Rigoletto  "   December  29   5 

"  Saint  Elizabeth "   January     3   5 

"  Thais  "    January     5   6 

"  Lodoletta  "    January  12   5 

"  Le  Prophete  " February    7  5 


APPENDIX  445 

Opera  First  Performance  Times 

"  I    Puritani "    February  18  4 

"  II  Barbiere  "   February  22  4 

"  Madame   Sans-Gene  "    March     2    3 

"  Le  Coq  d'Or  "   March     6    6 

"  L'Amore  dei  tre  Re "   March   14   5 

"  Shanewis  "     March  23    5 

"  The   Dance  in   Place   Congo " 

(ballet)    March  23    4 

SUMMARY 

Subscription  performances   115 

Extra  performances   (including  benefits)    26 

Total   performances    141 

Double  bills   7 

Triple  bill  I 

Mixed  bill    i 

Operas  by  Italian  composers   19 

Operas  by  German  composers  (including  Meyerbeer  and  Liszt) .     4 

Operas  by  Russian  composers  3 

Operas  by  French  composers    5 

Opera  by  American  composers   I 

Ballet  by  American  composers   I 

Performances  in  Italian   102 

Performances  in  French   40 

Performances  in  English    10 

There  were  performances  in  Brooklyn  as  follows : 
"Tosca,"  "Le  Nozze  di  Figaro,"  "II  Trovatore,"  "La 
Figlia  del  Reggimento,"  "  Ai'da,"  "  Rigoletto,"  "  Cavalleria 
Rusticana  "  with  "  Pagliacci,"  "  La  Boheme,"  "  Thais,"  "  I 
Puritani,"  and  "  Carmen." 


INDEX 


Abbey,  Henry  E.,  and  Abbey, 

Schoeffel   and  Grau,    15,    16, 

66,  67,  281,  330,  408 
Aborn,     Milton    and     Sargent, 

177,  179 

Absolute  pitch,  264 
Academic  Royale,  133,  200 
Academy      of      Music,      New 

York,  14,  15,  228 
Adaberto,  Ester,  39 
"  Addio  O  miei  sospiri,"  148 
Addison,  7,  129,  184 
Adkins,  Morton,  177 
"  Aeneid,"  359 
"  Africaine,      U,"     opera     by 

Meyerbeer,  330,  341 
Agostinelli,  soprano,  96 
"  Aida,"  opera  by  Verdi,  42,  48, 

48,  55,  177,  178,  178,  178,  243, 

301,  395     (see   Appendix) 
Alboni,  Marietta,  252 
"  Alceste,"  opera  by  Gluck,  144, 

147 

Alda,  Frances,  31,  39,  5°,  *4P, 
274,  295,  321,  35i,  398;  por- 
trait, 400 

Aldrich,  Mariska,  96,  141,  164 

Aldrich,  Richard,  329 

Alkestis,  415 

Alpine  music,  53,  305,  3°6 

Alten,  Bella,  144,  248,  253 

Althouse,  Paul,  debut,  286;  321, 
336,  3/0,  411 

Altruism  professed  by  man- 
agers, 95 

Alvarez,  tenor,  408 

Amato,  Pasquale,  29,  39,  39,  5°, 
51,  60,  140,  149,  204,  210,  266, 
284;  portrait,  294;  295,  por- 
trait, 310;  318,  336,  351, 
407 

American  Company,  The 
(theatrical),  189 

"American    Indian,   The,"    189 


"  Americano,  L',"  189 
American         Opera         House, 
planned  by  Hammerstein,  88 
American  opera,  the  first,   191 
"  Americans  in  England,  The," 

192 

"  Americana   in  Europa,"    189 
"  American  Adventurers,  The," 

189 

"  Americans   in   England,"    192 
American    school    of    composi- 
tion, 45  et  seq.;  how  a  school 
may  be  created,  186 
American  slave  music,  212 
American  theatrical  companies, 

early,  73,  186 
American  tunes  in   "  The  Girl 

of  the  Golden  West,"  209 
"  Amico    Fritz,    L',"    opera    by 

Mascagni,  363 

"  Amore  dei  tre  Re,"  opera  by 
Montemezzi,    309,    310,    311; 
first  performance,  313;  criti- 
cism,  313   et  scq.;   349,  351, 
372  (see  Appendix) 
"  Amore  medico,  L',"  opera  by 
Wolf-Ferrari,  309,  310,  311; 
first  performance,  328 ;  criti- 
cism, 328  (see  Appendix) 
"  Amour  de  Tzigane,  L' "  (see 

"  Zigeunerliebe  ") 
"  Amour  Medecin,  L',"  329 
Ananian,  Paul,  39,  158,  248,  295, 

327.  328 

"  Andrea    Chenier."    opera    by 
Giordano,    97,    308,    338,    372 
(see  Appendix) 
Andrews,  Lyle  D.,  83,  84 
Anschiitz,  Carl,  145,  342 
Anselmi,  conductor,  112 
"  Arabian     Nights     Entertain- 
ments," 399 
Arcadelt,  366 


447 


448 


INDEX 


"  Archers,  The,"  opera  by  Carr, 
229 

Arden,  Cecil,  407 

Arditi,  Luigi    (^e 

Ariadne,  story  of,  217 

"  Ariane  et  Barbe-Bleue," 
opera  by  Dukas,  first  per- 
formance, 216;  criticism,  216 
et  seq.;  a  satire  on  woman, 
223,  225  (see  Appendix) 

Arimondi,  Vittorio,  96,  235,  395 

Arion,        Mannergesangverein, 

393 

"  Aristeo,"  opera  by  Gluck,  149 

"  Arlesienne,  L',"  365 

"Armide,"  opera  by  Gluck, 
144;  first  performance,  190; 
criticism,  199  et  seq.;  226 
(see  Appendix) 

Arne,  Dr.,  190 

Arnold,  Samuel,  190 

Aronson,  Rudolph,  25,  92 

"  Askold's  Tomb,"  opera  by 
Verstowsky,  158 

"  Asrael,"  opera  by  Franchetti, 
55,  150 

Associazione  Italiana  di  Amici 
della  Musica,  266 

Astor,  John  Jacob,  33 

Atlanta,  Ga.,  138,  349 

Atmosphere  in  opera,  212 

"  Attaque  du  Moulin,  L',"  opera 
by  Bruneau,  139;  first  per- 
formance, 154;  criticism,  155 
et  seq.  (see  Appendix) 

Auber,  53  (see  "  Muette  di 
Portici  "  and  "  Fra  Diavolo  ") 

Bada,  Angelo,  38,  204,  210,  248, 

296,  318,  327,  328,   336,  35i, 

398 

Bagehot,  Walter,  46 
Baird.    Edward    Kellogg,    174, 

176,  176 

Baker,  George  F.,  33,  60 
Bakos,  Ella,  341 
Baklonoff,  Georges,  194,  395 
Balfe  (see  "Bohemian  Girl"), 

186 

Ballets  in   Gluck's  operas,  201 
"  Ballo     in     Maschera.       Un," 

opera  by  Verdi,  97,  309  (see 

Appendix) 


Baltazarini     (see  "  Circe  ") 
Baltimore,  Md.,  22,  74,  137,  138, 

190,  191,  193,  273,  274,  360 
Baracchi,  Aristide,  149 
"  Barbe-Bleue,"  operetta  by  Of- 
fenbach, 221,  222 
Barber,  Donn,  33 
"  Barber  of  Bagdad,"  opera  by 

Cornelius,  399 
"  Barbiere      di      Siyiglia,      II," 

opera   by    Rossini,    127,    198, 

395  (see  Appendix) 
Barilo,  Rita,  149 
Barker,  stage  manager,  186 
Barnay,  Ludwig,  25 
Barney,  Charles  T.,  33 
Baron,  Alice,  118 
"  Bartered  Bride  "  ( see  "  Ver- 

kaufte  Braut") 
Bartik,    Ottokar,   409,   412 
Barton,  Andrew,  191 
Barton,  George  Edward,  167 
Barrientos,  Maria,  debut,  350; 

portrait,  350;  361,  409 
Bartsch,  Rudolph  Hans,  305 
Bascom,     Inc.,     ticket    agents, 

270 

Bassi,  Amadeo,  250 
"  Basso    Porto,    A,"   opera   by 

Spinelli,   108 
"  Bastien  et  Bastienne,"  opera 

by  Mozart,  372 
Bates,   Blanche,  206 
Battle  of  Leipsic,  152 
Bavagnoli,  Giovanni,  354 
Bayer,  Julius,  40,  56,  213,  311, 

327,  370 
Baylies,    Edmund    L.,    22,    33, 

176,  178,  179,  277 
"  Beatitudes,  Les,"  oratorio  by 

Franck,  124 
Beauty,    appreciation    of,    123; 

stability  of  principles,   II 
Beck,  William,  112 
Beethoven,  criticism  of.  10;  123, 

162,  252,   264,   290,  297,  414, 

416;    his    republicanism,    416 

(see  "  Fidelio  ") 
Begue,    Bernard,   40,    158,  210, 

216,  336 
Belasco,    David,   his   "  Girl   of 

the     Golden     West,"     204; 

directs  an  opera  production, 


INDEX 


449 


204,  206,  212;  on  opera  sing- 
ers as  actors,  209 

Belleki,  Lamberto,  210 

Belleri,  Margarete,  403 

Bellini  (see  "  Sonnambula," 
"  Puritani,"  and  "Norma") 

Belmont,  August,  33 

Bendix,  Max,  141 

Benelli,  Sem,  313 

"  Benvenuto  Cellini,"  opera  by 
Berlioz,  156 

Berat,  Louise,  250,  251,  395 

Berger,  Rudolph,  332 ;  death  of, 
336 

Bergman,  Gustav,   177 

Bergmann,  Carl,  289 

Berlin,  opera  in,  134 

Berlioz  (see  "Troyens"  and 
"Benvenuto  Cellini"),  148 

Bernard,  John,  192 

Bernstorff,  Count  von,  383 

Bertoni,  148 

Bickerstaff,  190 

Birchpfeiffer,  Charlotte,  53 

"  Birichino,  II,"  opera  by  Mu- 
gnone,  54 

Bishop,  Cortlandt  Field,  33 

Bispham,  David,  173,  372 

Bitterl,  Constance,  403 

Bizet  (see  "  Carmen,"  "  Pe- 
cheurs  de  Perles,"  "  Fille  de 
Perth,"  "  Djamileh,"  "  Arle- 
sienne  "),  58 

Blass,  Robert,  40,  56,  140,  274, 
284 

Blech,  Leo  (see  "  Versiegelt  ") 

Bloch,  Max,  336,  345,  354,  3/0, 
398,  407,  408 

Blockx,  Jan  (see  Pnncesse 
d'Auberge  ") 

Bluebeard,  218  et  seq. 

"  Boabdil,"  opera  by  Moszkow- 
ski,  92 

Boadicea,  260 

Boccacio,  125 

Bodanzky,  Artur,  354,  367,  368, 
370;  portrait,  378;  403 

Boehm,  Clara,  39 

"  Boheme,  La,"  opera  by  Puc- 
cini, 97,  117,  179,  198,  212, 
372,  397  (see  Appendix) 

Bohemian  Club,  San  Francisco, 
247 


"  Bohemian  Girl,"  opera  by 
Balfe,  113,  179,  180 

Bohemians  in  New  York,  pro- 
test against  Austrian  hymn, 
49;  dance  in  "  Verkaufte 
Braut,"  56 

Boileau,  129 

Boito  (see  "  lago,"  "  Nerone," 
and  Mefistofele") 

Bolm,  Adolf,  397,  408,  409 

Bond,  Alessandro,  31,  39,  40, 
50,  6p,  140,  274 

Bonfiglio,  Giuseppe,  409 

Bori,  Lucrezia,  portrait,  318; 
318;  illness  of,  318;  328,  341 

"  Boris  Godounow,"  opera  by 
Moussorgsky,  108,  159,  233, 
282,  286;  first  performance, 
295;  criticism,  295  et  seq.; 
310,  316,  336,  349,  351,  417 
(see  Appendix) 

Borodin    (see  "  Prince  Igor  ") 

Boston — Boston  Opera  Com- 
pany, 28,  317,  332;  Hammer- 
stein  gives  up  performing 
operas,  80;  protests  against 
"Salome,"  106,  137;  early 
opera  in,  190;  273,  274,  364, 
349 ;  National  Grand  Opera 
Company,  371,  397;  conduc- 
tor of  orchestra  interned, 
389;  orchestra  turned  over 
to  trustees,  390 

Botta,  Luca,  287,  341,  351 

Bottesini,  399 

Bouilly,  189 

Bourgeois,   Georges,   210,   216 

Boyce,  190 

Bozzano,  Enzo,  39 

Brahms,  415,  416 

Braslau,  Sophie,  311,  318,  327, 
336,  341.  409;  portrait,  412; 
412 

Braun,  Carl,  332,  367,  393 

Bremn,  Marie,  146 

Brescia,  330 

Bressler-Gianoli,  Clotilde,  227, 
235 

Breton    (see  "  Dolores  ") 

Breval,  Lucienne,  126 

Brignoli,  Pasquale,  9 

Bristow,  George  F.  (see  "  Rip 
Van  Winkle") 


450 


INDEX 


Brooklyn,    opera    in,    138,    273, 

336 ;     Philharmonic    Society, 

403   (see  Appendix) 
Bruneau     (see     "  Attaque     du 

Moulin")  and  Wagner,  156 
Bucholz,    Robert,    stage    name 

of  Conried,  25 
Buck,  Dudley,  159 
Buckreus,  Stefen,  248 
Buononcini    (see   also    Bonon- 

cini),  7,  126 

Burgstaller,  Aloys,  40,  284 
Burgstaller,  Ludwig,  311,  398, 

407 

Burney,  Dr.   Charles,   in,  200 
Burrian,  Carl,  40,  105,  284 
Byrom,  John,  126 


Cable,  George  W.,  412 
Cadman,      Charles      Wakefield 

(see  "Shanewis");  portrait, 

392 
Cain,     Henri,     126,    235,    251, 

321 

"  Ca  ira,"  308,  339,  340 
Ca"iro,  folksongs  of,  402 
Calve,  Emma,  48,  67,  98,   136, 

146,  362,  364 

"  Camilla,"  opera  by  Paer,  142 
Campanari,    Giuseppe.    40,    51, 

60,  363 
"  Campanello,  II  "  (see  "  Night 

Bell") 
Campanini,    Cleofonte,   80,   96, 

112,  226,  235,   2-50,  251,  305, 

321,   326.   394 
Campanini,  Italo,  9 
"  Campmeeting     John     Allen," 

330 

"Camptown  Races,"  208,  211 
Canning,  416 
"  Canterbury     Pilgrims,    The," 

opera    by    De    Koven,    365 ; 

first   performance,   370    (see 

Appendix) 
Carew,  Miss,  114 
Carey,    Henry,   on    rival    sing- 
ers, 8,  190 
"  Carmagnole,    La,"    308,    338, 

339 
"  Carmen,"  opera  by  Bizet,  43, 

67,  108,  113,  117,  179,  183. 198, 


225,  231,  301,  302,  309,  335, 
305  (see  Appendix) 

Carr,  Benjamin  (see  "Arch- 
ers, The"),  229 

Carre,   French   librettist,   127 

Carrillons  in  the  Netherlands, 
ill 

Cartellverband,    German,    379 

Carter,  Thomas,  189 

Cartier,  112 

Caruso,  Enrico,  9;  under  con- 
tract to  Grau,  25 ;  engaged  by 
Conried,  25 ;  supports  Dippel 
in  controversy,  29 :  32,  40,  60, 
61,  64;  illness  of,  63,  194; 
140,  149 ;  in  "  Armide,"  203 ; 
204,  205,  274,  284,  310;  por- 
traits, 326,  330,  362 ;  274,  284, 
310,  326,  326;  honorarium, 
326;  333;  re-engaged  for 
I9I5-I6,  333;  336,  349,  350, 
362,  364,  407,  407,  408 

Case,  Anna,  141,  266,  296,  311 

Catalani  (see  "  Wally "  and 
"  Dejanice  "),  51,  55 

"  Cat  and  the  Cherub,  The,"  341 

Cavalieri,  Lina,  77,  99;  quarrel 
with  Mary  Garden,  100,  102; 
112,  114 

"  Cavalleria  Rusticana,"  opera 
by  Mascagni,  48,  54,  67,  92, 
108,  113,  143,  145,  363  (see 
Appendix) 

Cavan,  Marie,  235,  251 

"  Cendrillon,"  opera  by  Mas- 
senet, in,  113;  first  per- 
formance, 251 ;  criticism,  251 
et  seq. 

"  Cenerentola,"  opera  by  Ros- 
sini, 252 

"  Cenerentola,"  opera  by  Wolf- 
Ferrari,  250 

Centanini,  "  Count,"  26,  27 

Century  Opera  Company,  164, 
et  seq.;  repertory,  178;  aban- 
dons exclusive  use  of  Eng- 
lish, 179:  losses  of,  179:  anal- 
ysis of  financial  report,  179 ; 
competition  with  Metropol- 
itan Opera  Company,  181 : 
214,  397 

Century  Theater  (Opera 
House),  33,  87;  two  seasons 


INDEX 


45i 


of  popular  opera  at,  164  et 

seq. 

Cervantes  despoiled,  321 
Chadwick,  George  W.,   171 
Chalmers,    Thomas,    177,    397, 

398,  412 

Changelings,  961 
"  Chapters  of  Opera,"  book  by 

H.  E.  Krehbiel,  quoted,  I,  4, 

13,   54,  66,  84,  92,   102,   176, 

329,  355 

Characterization  by  keys,  261 
Charlestown,  S.  C,  73,  190 
Charlier,  conductor,   112 
"  Charlotte  Temple,"  author  of, 

192 
Charpentier      (see     "  Louise " 

and  "  Julien") 
Chaucer,  371 

Chavannes,  Puvis  de,  147 
"Chemineau,     Le,"    opera    by 

Leroux,  139 
"Cherokee,     The,"    opera    by 

Storace,    189 
Cherubini,  390 

Chicago,  60.  299,  324;  Chicago 
Opera  Company,  28,  77,  80, 
93,  226,  333,  394;  Chicago- 
Philadelphia  Opera  Com- 
pany, 80,  81,  193,  224  et 
seq.,  287,  310,  321  (see  also 
Philadelphia-Chicago  Opera 
Company ) 
"  Children  of  the  Don,"  opera 

by  Holbrooke,  83 
Chinese  shadow  plays,  410 
Chopin,   162,   187 
"Chopin,"  ballet,   139 
"  Chute    de    la    Maison    Usher, 
Le,"   opera  by   Debussy,   141 
"  Cid,  Le,   opera  by   Massenet, 

116 

Cilea    (see    "Tilda") 
Cincinnati,  orchestra  leader  in- 
terned, 389 
Cinderella,  story  of,  in  opera, 

251 
"  Circe,   ou   le   Ballet   Comique 

de  la  Reine,"  200 
Cisneros,   Eleanora,  235,  305 
City    Club,    opera    project,    87, 

89.  92.  i/3.  177 
Civini,  C.,  204 


Clement,  Edmond,  141,  158, 
158 

Clement  et  Larousse,  diction- 
ary of  operas,  252 

"  Cloches  de  Corneville,  Les," 
operetta  by  Planquette,  83 
(see  Appendix) 

"  Coal  Oil  Tommy,"  208 

Coburn  Players,  The,  3/1 

Coini,  Jacques,  83,  118 

Coke,  Lord  Chief  Justice,  276 

"  Columbus,  or  a  World  Dis- 
covered," 189 

Collier's  Weekly,  newspaper, 
quoted,  134 

Composers  and  long  operas, 
290 

"  Conchita,"  opera  by  Zan- 
donai,  287 ;  first  performance, 
298 ;  criticism,  298 ;  306 

Conried,  Heinrich,  his  adminis- 
tration  of   the    Metropolitan 
Opera  House,  3,  16  et  seq.; 
failures  of  his  management, 
18;     treatment     of     German 
opera,  19;   retirement  of,  20 
et  seq.;  the  Conried  Metro- 
politan  Opera   Company,  22, 
23 ;    resignation    as    director, 
22;  system  of  profit  sharing, 
23 ;   profits  of  the  company, 
24;   sells  his  shares,  24;  ill- 
ness    and     death,     24 ;     his 
career,  24 ;  change  in  organ- 
ization of  the  company,  29; 
manager     of     Irving     Place 
Theater,      32;      plans      New 
Theater,     32;     approves     of 
plans,   33,  37;   anecdote,  38; 
abandons      "  Salome,"      103 ; 
103,  135,  136;  fails  to  appre- 
ciate Renaud,   194;   197,  214, 
224;  cost  of  opera  under  his 
management,   282,  346 
Constantino,  tenor,  112,  194 
"  Contes  d'Hoffmann,  Les,"  op- 
era  by    Offenbach,    in,    113, 
114,    139,    178,  226    (see   Ap- 
pendix) 

Contesse,  Etienne,  326 
Converse,       Frederick         (see 

"  Pipe  of  Desire  ") 
"  Coq     d'Or,    Le,"    opera    by 
Rimsky-Korsakow,  397,  398; 


452 


INDEX 


first  performance,  398,  408; 
criticism,  408  et  seq:;  417 
(see  Appendix) 

Cornelius,  Peter  (see  "  Bar- 
ber of  Bagdad") 

Cornwell,  William  C,  174,  176 

Cortez,  Hernando,  his  horses 
in  Mexico,  213 

"  Cortez,  Hernando,"  opera  by 
Spontini,  213 

Cottenet,  Rawlins  L.,  2O 

Cotrelly,  Mathilde,  25 

Covent  Garden  Theater,  Lon- 
don, 82,  369 

Cox,  Louise,  295,  327,  327 

Crabbe,  Armand,  98,  107,  112, 
114,  229,  235 

Cravath,   Paul,  33,  86 

"  Cricket  on  the  Hearth,"  op- 
era by  Goldmark,  38,  139, 

195 

"  Crispino  e  la  Comare,"  opera 
by  the  brothers  Ricci,  113 
(see  Appendix) 

Cristali,  Italo,  328 

Criticism,  need  and  value  of, 
9  et  seq. 

Crozier,  General,  U.  S.  Chief 
of  Ordnance,  383 

Curtis,  Vera,  295,  327,  336 

Cuyler,  T.  De  Witt,  80,  277 

Cuzzoni,  8 

"  Cyrano  de  Bergerac,"  opera 
by  Damrosch,  286 ;  first  per- 
formance, 288;  criticism,  288 
et  seq.  (see  Appendix) 

"  Cyrano  de  Bergerac,"  opera 
by  Herbert,  291 

"  Czar  und  Zimmermann,"  op- 
era by  Lortzing,  142  (see 
Appendix) 

Daddi,  Francesco,  107,  233, 
250,  251 

Dalayrac,    189 

D' Albert  (sec  "  Tiefland")  ; 
parentage  and  education,  45 ; 
a  man  without  a  country,  45 

Dalmores,  Charles,  77,  81,  96, 
105,  112,  114,  115,  124,  227, 
235,  305,  395 

D'Alvarez,  Molle,  115 

"Dama  di  Picche "  (see  "Pi- 
que Dame  ") 


"  Damnation  de  Faust,  La,"  by 
Berlioz,  202,  225  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

Damrosch,  Frank,  64,  249 

Damrosch,  Dr.  Leopold,  2,  15, 
289,  408 

Damrosch,  Walter  (see 
"  Scarlet  Letter  "  and  "  Cy- 
rano de  Bergerac  ")  ;  45,  63, 
64,  171,  174 

"  Dance  in  Place  Congo,  The," 
ballet  by  Gilbert,  398,  411 
(see  Appendix) 

Dance  mania,  the  world's,  409 

D'Angelo.  Louis,  408 

D'Annunzio,  "  Francesca  da 
Rimini,"  370 

Dante,  371 

Dantzig,  330 

"  Darby's  Return,"  192 

Dargomischky,  159 

David,  Felicien  (see  "  Des- 
ert"), 366 

"Dead  Alive,  The,"  189 

Debussy  (see  "  Chute  de  la 
Maison  Usher,"  "  Diable 
dans  le  Beffroi,"  "  Pelleas 
et  Melisande,"  "  Legende  de 
Tristan,"  "  Les  Sirenes"); 
10,  in;  his  operas,  155; 
288,  302,  316 

"  Decameron,"  125 

Declamation  in  opera,  157 

Decourcelles,  318 

Defrere,   Desire,  229,  251,  326 

"Dejanice,"  opera  by  Catalani, 

54 
De     Koven,     Reginald       (see 

"Canterbury  Tales"),   173 
De   la  Fuente,  conductor,   112, 

114,  118,  123 
Delna,    Marie,    141,    149,    158, 

158 
De   Luca,    Giuseppe,   354,   362, 

398;  portrait,  400 
Delwary,  Stefen,  40 
Denton,  Stanley,  84 
Denza,  "  Funiculi,  funicula," 

211 

De  Reszke,  Edouard,  136,  408 
De  Reszke,  Jean,  9,  66,  72 ;  on 

translations,    131 ;    136,    330, 

408 
"  Description  de  1'Egypte,"  402 


INDEX 


453 


"Desert,  Le,"  cantata  by 
David,  402 

"  Deserteur,  Le "  {see  "  De- 
serter, The  ") 

"  Deserter,  The,"  opera  by 
Monsigny,  190 

Desmond,  Miss,  118 

De  Stael,  Madame,  130,  166 

Destinn,  Emmy,  39 ;  career  in 
Berlin,  38 ;  a  Bohemian  pa- 
triot, 39 ;  detained  in  Austria, 
49;  portraits,  40;  44,  48,  51, 
55,  56,  140,  149,  160,  210,  266, 
273,  284,  332,  377 

"  Deutschland  iiber  Alles,"  49 

Devaux,  Leo,  158 

Deyries,  singer,  101 

"Diable  dans  le  Beffroi,  Le," 
opera  by  Debussy,  141 

Diaghileff  Ballet,  349,  352 

"Diane  von  Solange,"  opera  by 
the  Duke  of  Saxe-Coburg, 

55 

Diaz,  Rafaello,  409 
Dibdin,  C.,  190 
Didur,  Adamo,  39,  39,  56,  60, 

60,  140,  160,  210,  213,  248,  274, 
296;  portrait,  298;   318,  341, 
407,  408,  409 

'  Die  kleine  Blanchefleur,"  305 

D'Indy,  Vincent,  324 

"  Dinorah,"  opera  by  Meyer- 
beer, 395  (see  Appendix) 

Dippel,  Andreas,  conflict  with 
Gatti-Casazza,  3,  21,  29  et 
seq.;  appointed  a  joint  man- 
ager of  the  Metropolitan  Op- 
era House,  22 ;  his  general 
usefulness  as  a  singer,  23; 
service  to  German  opera,  25  ; 
has  support  of  principal  sing- 
ers, 29;  portrait,  32;  declines 
dinner  offered  by  German 
Liederkranz,  31 ;  made  ad- 
ministrative director,  31  : 
organizes  Chicago  Opera 
Company,  32;  36,  48,  60,  60, 

61,  64,    78,     138;    debut    in 
New    York,    151;    155,    176, 
195 ;   interest  in  English  op- 
era, 196;  233;   214,  225,  284, 
304,   306 

"  Disappointment,   The,"    191 


Dodge,  Allen  and  Campbell, 
190 

"  Dolores,"  opera  by  Breton, 
97 

"  Don  Carlos,"  opera  by  Verdi, 
55 

"  Don  Giovanni,"  opera  by 
Mozart,  67,  68,  198,  292, 
373  (see  Appendix) 

Donizetti  (see  "  Don  Pas- 
quale,"  "  Lucia,"  "  Fille  du 
Regiment,"  "  Linda  di  Cha- 
mounix,"  and  "  Night  Bell") 

'*  Donne  Curiose,  Le,"  opera  by 
Wolf-Ferrari,  first  perform- 
ance, 247;  250,  329  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

"  Don  Pasquale,"  opera  by 
Donizetti,  60  (see  Appendix) 

"  Don  Quichotte,"  opera  by 
Massenet,  310,  311;  first  per- 
formance, 321 ;  criticism,  321 
et  seq. 

Doria,  Augusta,  95,  112 

"  Dragons  de  Villars,  Les," 
opera  by  Maillart,  139  (see 
Appendix) 

Draper,  Eben  S.,  106 

Drury  Lane  Theater,  London, 
82,  189 

Dryden,  409 

Duchene,  Mme.,  118,  123,  266, 
296,  318,  327,  327 

Dufau,  Jenny,  250,  251 

Dufault,  118 

Dufranne,  Hector,  96,  98,  107, 
112,  115,  124,  229,  235,  251, 
305,  321,  395 

Dukas,  Paul  ( see  "  Ariane  et 
Barbe-Bleue  ") 

Duncan,   Isadora,  410 

Dunlap,  William,  192,  229 

Dury,  Jacques,  305 

Duse,  Eleonora,  48,  370 

Eames,  Emma,  9;  supports 
Dippel  in  controversy,  29 ; 
retires  from  operatic  stage, 
31,  32;  40,  49;  portrait,  66: 
career,  66:  repertory  of,  67; 
adds  German  operas  to  her 
list,  67;  136,  284 

Easton,  Florence,  397,  403 


454 


INDEX 


Eberhard,  Nellie  Richmond, 
412 

"  Echo  et  Narcisse,"  opera  by 
Gluck,  149 

Educational  opera,   112 

"  Edwin  and  Angelina,"  opera 
by  Pelissier,  229 

Egener,  Minnie,  229,  321,  336, 
351,  371,  407 

"  Electra,"  tragedy  by  Soph- 
ocles, 119 

"  Elektra,"  opera  by  Richard 
Strauss,  in;  Hammerstein 
buys  performing  rights,  in; 
113,  H3;  criticism,  117  (see 
Appendix) 

"  Elisir  d'Amore,  L',"  opera  by 
Donizetti  (see  Appendix) 

Ellis,  Charles  A.,  334,  389 

Engel,  Louise,  213 

English  opera  (and  opera  in 
English)  141,  165;  exclusive 
use  of  language  abandoned 
by  Century  Opera  Company, 
179;  in  competition  with 
Italian,  181 ;  need  of  good 
diction  in,  185 ;  in  America, 
188;  and  Dippel,  196;  notes 
on  its  history,  226 

Epine,  Margareta  de  1',  7 

"  Epistolae  heroidum,"  359 

"  Erastus,"  191 

"  Ernani,"  opera  by  Verdi,  97 
(see  Appendix) 

"  Ero  e  Leandro,"  opera  by 
Mancinelli,  68 

"  Esmeralda,"  opera  by  Goring 
Thomas,  175 

Euripides's  "  Iphigenia,"  367 

"  Euryanthe,"  opera  by  Weber, 
43,  128,  335 ;  appreciation  of, 
342;  348  (see  Appendix) 

"  Evangelimann,  Der,"  opera 
by  Kienzl,  305 

Eversman,  Alice,  367 

Ewell,  Lois,  177 

"  Fanciulla  del  West,  La,"  op- 
era by  Puccini,  195,  197 ;  first 
performance,  204;  fate  of, 
204;  criticism,  204  et  seq.; 
215,  249  (see  Appendix) 

Farrar,  Geraldine,  5, 8 ;  selected 


by  Grau,  25;  supports  Dippel 
in  controversy,  29;  32,  40,  61, 
64,  101,  139,  140,  195,  213, 
215,  216;  interprets  "  Ariane 
et  Barbe-Bleue,"  218;  220, 
222;  portrait,  214;  248,  273, 
284,  310,  326,  326;  her 
thoughts  on  German  engage- 
ments, 334;  unpatriotic  senti- 
ments, 334;  contract  with 
Chicago  Company,  334;  335, 
336,  349,  350,  407 

"  Falstaff,"  opera  by  Verdi,  48, 
55,  59,  67,  97,  201,  365  (see 
Appendix) 

"  Familie  Americaine,  La,"  189 

"Faust,"  opera  by  Gounod,  67, 
67,  113,  179,  225,  246,  310, 
395  (see  Appendix) 

"  Faust "  as  puppet  play,  410 

Feinhals,  Fritz,  39,  44 

Female  librettist,  an  early,  191 

Female  suffrage  in  opera,  217 

"  Femme  et  la  Pantin,"  300 

Fenton,  Lavinia,  8 

Fernald,  C.  B.,  341 

Ferrara-Fontano,  Eduardo,  317, 
3i8 

Ferrara,  gives  opera  at  Acad- 
emy of  Music,  113 

"  Feuersnot,"  opera  by  Richard 
Strauss,  in,  113 

Fevrier  ( see  "  Monna  Vanna  ") 

Fichte,  152 

"  Fidelio,"  opera  by  Beethoven, 
92,  143,  189,  282,  289,  290, 
335,  416  (see  Appendix) 

Field,  William  B.  Osgood,  33 

"  Figlia  del  Reggimento  "  (see 
"  Fille  du  Regiment ") 

"  Fille  de  Madame  Angot," 
operetta  by  Lecocq  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

"  Fille  du  Regiment,  La,"  op- 
era by  Donizetti,  198  (see 
Appendix) 

Finch,  Edward  R.,  174,  176,  177 

Finley,  John  H.,  35 

First  performances  of  operas 
in  New  York,  "  Tiefland," 
44:  "Le  Villi,"  50:  "La 
Wally,"  51;  "Verkaufte 
Braut,  Die,"  55;  "Jongleur 


INDEX 


455 


de  Notre  Dame,  Le,"  98; 
"  La  Princesse  d'Auberge," 
106;  "  Elektra,"  114,  117; 
"  Herodiade,"  114;  "  Sapho," 
115 ;  "  Griselidis,"  123  ;  "  Ger- 
mania,"  146;  "  L'Attaque  du 
Moulin,"  154;  "  Pique  Dame," 
158;  "The  Pipe  of  Desire," 
164 ;  "  La  Fanciulla  del 
West,"  204 ;  "  Konigskinder," 
213 ;  "  Ariane  et  Barbe- 
Bleue,"  216;  "  Armide,"  199; 
"  II  Segreto  di  Susanna," 
234;  "Quo  Vadis?"  235; 
"  Lobetanz,"  243 ;  "  Le  Donne 
Curiose,"  247;  "I  Giojelli 
della  Madonna,"  250 ; 
"  Mona,"  255  ;  "  Cendrillon," 
251 ;  "  Conchita,"  298;  "  Ranz 
des  Vaches,"  304 ;  "  Rosen- 
kavalier,"  311;  "  L'Amore 
dei  tre  Re,"  313;  "Made- 
leine," 318;  "  Don  Quichotte," 
321;  "Monna  Vanna,"  324; 
"  Julien,"  326 ;  "  L'Amore 
Medico,"  328;  "Madame 
Sans-Gene,"  336 ;  "  L'Ora- 
colo,"  341  ;  "  Prince  Igor," 
351 ;  "  Goyescas,"  354;  "  Iphi- 
genia  auf  Tauris,"  367, 
"  Francesca  da  Rimini,"  370 ; 
"  The  Canterbury  Pilgrims," 
370;  "  Marouf,"  398;  "  Lo- 
doletta,"  398,  407  ;  "  St.  Eliza- 
beth," 398 

First  performances  of  operas 
which  pass  unnoticed,  362 

Fischer,  Emil,  380,  399 

Fish,  a  symbol  of  Christianity, 
238 

Fitziu,  Anna,  354 

Flahaut,  Marianne,  39 

Flemish  elements  in  "  Prin- 
cesse d'Auberge,"  107 

"  Fliegende  Hollander,  Der " 
(sec  "  Flying  Dutchman  ") 

"  Flying  Dutchman,  The,"  op- 
era by  Wagner,  first  produc- 
tion in  Italy,  26;  289 

Fokine,    Michael,   408 

Folksong  idioms  in  national 
schools  of  music,  187 

Forbes-Robertson,  35 


Fornaroli,  Lucia,  216 

Fornia,  Rita,  40,  44,  248,  265, 
266,  311,  336 

Forsell,  John,  160 

"  Forza  del  Destmo,  La,"  op- 
era by  Verdi,  55 

Fosetta,  Nicolo,  107,  250 

Foster,  Stephen  C,  211 

"  Fra  Diavolo,"  opera  by  Au- 
ber,  225  (see  Appendix) 

France,  Anatole,  101 

"  Francesca  da  Rimini,"  opera 
by  Montemezzi,  282,  361 ;  first 
performance,  369 ;  criticism, 
369  et  seq.  (see  Appendix) 

"  Francesca  da  Rimini,"  by 
d'Annunzio,  370 

Franchetti  (see  "  Asrael  "  and 
"  Germania  ")  ;  sketch  of, 
150 

Franck,  Cesar,  "  Les  Beati- 
tudes," 124 

Franco-Prussian  war,  157 

Franko,  Sam,  372 

Franz  Joseph,  Emperor  of 
Austria,  25 

Franz,  Robert,  415 

Freeholder's  Journal,  The,  126 

"  Freischiitz,  Der,"  343  (see 
Appendix) 

Fremstad,  Olive,  8,  40,  105,  139, 
140,  203,  204,  274,  284 

French  opera,  taken  up  by 
Hammerstein,  71 ;  under 
Gatti,  72 ;  against  Italian 
(anecdote),  72;  French 
ideals  in  art,  125 ;  French  re- 
ligious music,  124;  in  New 
York,  224 

"  Fricassee,   La,"   340 

Frick,  Henry  Clay,  33 

Fry,  W.  H.,  165,  228 

Fuchs,  Anton,  19,  284 

Fuller,   Lpie,  410 

"  Funiculi,  funicula,"  211 

Furnival,  357 

Fuselli,    315 

Gade,  187 

Gadski,  Johanna,  40,   140,   144, 

253.  274.  284,  332,  382,  393 
Galetti-Gianoli.  198 
Gallet,  Louis,   156 


456 


INDEX 


Galli,  Rosina,  250,  367,  409,  411 

Galli-Curci,  Amelita,  28;  por- 
trait, 344;  395,  396 

Galuppi,  190 

Garden,  Mary,  5,  77,  81,  96,  98, 
99 ;  quarrel  with  Cavalieri, 
100;  102,  104,  105;  her  dis- 
robing act,  105;  112,  115,  115, 
123,  124,  229,  230,  251,  253, 
321,  323,  324,  326,  394,  395, 
395,  306 

Garibaldi,  Gatti's  father  one  of 
his  "  Thousand,"  27 

Garrison,  Mabel,  287,  345,  372 

Garrick  Theater  in  New  York, 

375 

Gary,  Elbert  H.,  33 

Gates,   Lucy,   372 

Gatti-Casazza,  Giulio,  conflict 
with  Andreas  Dippel,  3,  20; 
21,  29  et  seq.;  portrait,  22; 
engaged  as  director  of  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House, 
22 ;  sketch  of  his  career,  27 ; 
his  taste  in  music,  28;  his 
contract  extended,  30,  36 ; 
estimate  of  public  taste  in 
New  York,  41 ;  42,  50,  51,  60; 
attitude  toward  French  op- 
era, 72,  225;  78,  78,  138,  170; 
on  repetition  of  operas,  180; 
sole  manager  of  the  Metro- 
politan Company,  193;  rejects 
"  Natoma,"  196 :  282,  284 ; 
"  Madeleine,"  318 ;  348 

"  Gaudeamus  igitur,"   153 

Gauthier-Villar,  118 

Gay,  Maria,  39 

"  Geierwally,"  53 

Geminiani,  190 

"  Genius  may  adopt  but  it 
never  steals,"  315 

Gentle,  Alice,  118 

Gerard,  J.  W.,  381 

"  Germania,"  opera  by  Fran- 
chetti,  139;  first  performance, 
149;  criticism,  149  et  seq.; 
248  (see  Appendix) 

Germania  Theater,  92 

German,  Kaiser,  honors  Gris- 
wold,  311 ;  language  comes  to 
be  hated,  41,  415;  managers 
boycott  America,  379;  music, 


attitude  of  public  toward,  2, 
382  et  seq.;  opera  under  Con- 
ried,  19 ;  Toscanini's  devo- 
tion to,  36;  attitude  of  Met- 
ropolitan Opera  Company,  79, 
382  et  seq.;  seasons  of  op- 
era at  Metropolitan  Opera 
House,  165,  284,  334;  opera 
helped  by  Caruso's  illness, 
194;  history  of  opera  in 
America,  289;  future  of  in 
New  York,  413  et  seq. 

German  operettas  given  by 
Conried,  18 

German  Press  Club,  49,  139 

Germany,  modern,  not  artis- 
tically creative,  416 

Gerster,  Etelka,  9,  396 

Gerville-Reache,  Jeanne,  96, 
107,  112,  114,  118;  portrait, 
118 

Giardini,  190 

Gilbert,  Henry  F.  (see  "  Dance 
in  Place  Congo"),  412 

Gilbert  and   Sullivan,   175,  373 

Gilder,   Richard  Watson,  35 

Gilibert,  Charles,  77,  81,  96, 107, 
112;  death  of,  198;  memorial, 
198;  portrait,  196 

Gilly,  Dinh,  141,  158,  204,  210, 
274,  284,  327,  332 

"  Gioconda,  La,"  opera  by  Pon- 
chielli,  54,  178  (see  Appen- 
dix) 

"  Giojelli  della  Madonna,  I," 
opera  by  Wolf-Ferrari,  249 ; 
first  performance,  250;  306, 
3io,  398 

Giordano.  Umberto  (see 
"  Mala,"  "  Andrea  Chenier," 
"  Siberia,"  "  Madame  Sans- 
Gene"),  53;  kept  from  com- 
ing to  New  York,  337 

"Girl  of  the  Golden  West," 
melodrama  by  Belasco,  204, 
207 

Glazounow,  352 

Glinka  (see  "  Rousslan  et 
Ludmilla"),  187 

Gluck,  Alma,  141,  144,  147,  160, 
204;  portrait,  144 

Gluck  (see  "Orfeo,"  "  Ar- 
mide,"  "  Iphigenia,"  "  Echp 


INDEX 


457 


et  Narcisse,"  "  Alceste," 
"Aristep"),  166,  186;  danc- 
ing in  his  operas,  201 ;  415 

Godiva,  Lady,  325,  395 

Goethe,  his  Mephistopheles, 
127;  321,  399,  410,  413,  414 

Goetz,  Hermann  (see  "  Wider- 
spanstigen  Zahmung") 

Gogol,  159 

Gogprza,  Emilio  de,  64,  353 

"  Gotterdammerung,"  opera  by 
Wagner,  first  performance  in 
Italy,  26;  243,  265,  282,  414 
(see  Appendix) 

Goldmark,  Carl  (see  "  Cricket 
on  the  Hearth,"  "Merlin") 

Golisciani,  Enrico,  329 

Gordon,  George  A.,   106 

Goritz,   Otto,  40,  44,   140,  213, 

153,  3ii,  332,354,  358 
"  Gott    erhalte    unser    Kaiser," 

49 

Gould,  Curtis,   106 

Gould,  George  J.,  33 

Gounod  ( see  "  Faust,"  "  Romeo 
et  Juliette,"  "  Mock  Doc- 
tor," and  "  There  Is  a  Green 
Hill"),  125,  156,  321 

Gounsberg,  Rapul.  202 

Gower,  Frederick  A.,  330 

Goya,  353 

"  Goyescas,"  opera  by  Grana- 
dos,  350,  353 ;  first  perform- 
ance, 354  (see  Appendix) 

Granados  (see  "  Goyescas," 
"  Maria  del  Carmen,"  and 
"Lillian");  loses  his  life  on 
steamer  Sussex,  354 

Grand    Duke   of    Weimar,   404 

Grassi,    Rinaldo,  39 

Grau,  Maurice.  2;  his  manage- 
ment of  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House,  15;  16,  18,  21; 
engagement  of  Caruso,  25 ; 
selects  Farrar  for  New  York, 
25;  67,  83,  126,  175,  198,  224, 
245,  284,  408 

Greek  ideals  outraged,  119 

Gregory,   Eliot,   33 

Gregory  IX,  Pope,  406 

Grenville,  Lillian,  229,  235 

Gretry  (see  "  Richard  Coeur 
de  Lion  "),  168 


Grieg,  187 

"  Griselda,"  opera  by  Bounon- 
cini,  126 

"  Griselidis,"  opera  by  Mas- 
senet, 97,  in,  113,  123;  first 
performance,  123 ;  criticism, 
124  et  seq.  (see  Appendix) 

"  Griselidis,  Le  Mystere  de," 
125 

Grisi,  281 

Griswold,  Frank  C,  30 

Griswold,  Putnam,  debut,  243 ; 
265,  274,  284,  295;  death  of, 
310 

Grizel,  The  Patient,  125 

Grogan,  Larry,  190 

Guard,  William  A.,  70 

Guardabassi,  Mario,  235 

Gudehus,    Heinrich,   408 

"  Gugelino,"  opera  by  Thuille, 
247 

"  Guglielmo  Tell  "  (see  "  Guil- 
laume  Tell") 

Guido  d'Arezzo,  359 

"  Guillaume  Tell,"  opera  by 
Rossini,  290,  309,  335 

Guille,  tenor,  363 

Guimera,  Angel,  44 

Guiraud,  Ernest,  395 

"  Gypsy  Baron "  (see  "  Zi- 
geunerbaron  ") 

"  Habanera,"  opera  by  Laparra, 
38,  139 

Hackett,  James  H.,  281 

Hadley,  Henry  K,  (see 
"  Azora  ") 

Halevy  (see  "Juive"  and 
"  Noe  ") 

Hall,  Glenn,   160,   164,  210 

Hall,  Marshall,  409 

Hall,  Thomas,  191 

"  Hamlet,"  opera  by  Ambroise 
Thomas,  287 

"  Hamlet,"  Shakespeare's,  343 

Hammerstein,  Arthur,  son  and 
agent  of  Oscar  Hammerstein, 
76 ;  appointed  attorney  in 
fact  by  father,  80;  agrees 
that  his  father  shall  retire 
from  management,  80;  88 

Hammerstein,  Oscar,  3 ;  plans 
opera  in  Boston,  21 ;  in 


458 


INDEX 


Philadelphia,  21 ;  rivalry  with 
Metropolitan  Opera  House, 
19,  39,  69  et  seq.;  70;  attitude 
of  newspapers  towards  him, 
70;  agrees  to  abandon  opera, 
70 ;  courts  society,  71 ;  led 
into  giving  French  opera,  71, 
73 ;  his  first  season,  73 ;  the 
Philadelphia  Opera  House, 
74,  77  (see  Philadelphia)  ; 
borrows  money  from  E.  T. 
Stotesbury,  75 ;  seasons,  1909- 
10,  75 ;  foresees  failure,  75 ; 
offers  to  combine  with  Met- 
ropolitan Company,  75 ;  sea- 
son 1910-11,  77;  threatens 
to  abandon  Philadelphia 
77 ;  his  losses  in  that  city,  79 ; 
receives  advances  from 
Stotesbury,  79;  claims  the 
money  as  gifts,  79;  sells  out 
his  interests,  79;  remarks  on 
the  losses  of  himself  and 
rivals,  80 :  plans  for  season 
1910-11,  80;  conceives  in- 
vasion of  London,  81 ;  at- 
tacks ticket  speculators  in 
New  York,  81 ;  enters  oper- 
etta field,  82 ;  builds  theater 
in  London,  82 ;  cost  of  the 
London  house,  82 ;  the  Lon- 
don adventure,  82  et  seq.; 
conducts  an  operetta,  83 ; 
financial  embarrassment  re- 
lieved by  Lord  Howard  de 
Walden,  83 ;  refuses  to  con- 
tinue performances  of  an  op- 
era, 84:  mortgage  on  the 
London  house  foreclosed,  84 ; 
sale  of  the  theater,  84;  new 
plans  for  New  York,  84; 
asks  consent  of  Metropolitan 
Opera  Company  in  vain,  86 ; 
builds  theater  in  Lexington 
Ave.,  87,  88,  93 ;  terms  of  his 
contract  with  the  Metropoli- 
tan Company,  88 :  threatens 
renewal  of  competition,  89; 
injunction  obtained  by  Met- 
ropolitan Opera  Company, 
91 ;  death  of  three  sons,  92 : 
death  of,  92  (footnote)  ;  his 
Harlem  Opera  House,  92; 


first  Manhattan  Opera  House, 
92;  his  last  two  seasons  at 
the  Manhattan,  94  et  seq.; 
flamboyant  advertising,  96 ; 
fight  with  newspaper  writers, 
102;  his  French  perform- 
ances, in;  "educational  op- 
era," 112;  gives  opera  bouffe, 
113;  essays  Wagner's  operas, 
29;  English  opera,  i/o;  224; 
his  Chicago  scheme,  225 ; 
226;  his  attempts  at  reform 
of  ticket  speculation,  269; 
394;  picture  of  his  London 
Opera  House,  82 
Handel,  126,  190 
"  Hans  the  Flute  Player,"  82 
"  Hansel  und  Gretel,"  opera  by 
Humperdinck.  20,  178,  197, 
214,  251,  253,  282  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

Hapgood,  Norman,  172 
Hargreaves,   Charles,  248 
Harlem  Opera  House,  92 
Hartman,  Richard  J.,  274,  278 
Harvey,  George  B.  M.,  45 
Hastreiter,  Helene,  145 
Haydn,  391,  416 
Haymarket    Theater,    London, 

190 
"  Heimchen   am   Heerd "    (see 

"  Cricket  on  the  Hearth  ") 
Heine,  Heinrich,  413 
Heliane,  Christine,  149,  158 
Hempel,  Frieda,  portrait,  310; 

3io,  311,  332,  345,  362,  364 
Henderson,    William    J.     (see 
dedication  of  this  book,  and 
"  Cyrano  de  Bergerac  ")  ;  on 
his   own    libretto,   289 ;    353 ; 
on  "  Shanewis,"  411;  tribute 
to  Sembrich.  62 ;  portrait,  288 
Henri  III,  of  France,  200 
Henry  VI,  Duke  of  Silesia,  405 
Hensel,  Heinrich,  debut,  243 
Herbert,     Victor     (see     "  Na- 
toma,"         "  Cyrano,"        and 
"  Madeleine  ") 
Herder,  399 
"  Hernando  Cortez,"  opera  by 

Spontini,  213 

Herman,  Landgrave  of  Thurin- 
gia,  405 


INDEX 


459 


Hermann,  Carl,  25 

"  Herodiade,"  opera  by  Mas- 
senet, in,  113;  first  perform- 
ance, 114;  116  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

Hertz,  Alfred,  29,  39, 44,  79, 141, 
171,  213,  253,  265,  273,  273, 
274,  288,  311 ;  retirement  from 
Metropolitan  Opera  House, 
336;  departure  from  New 
York,  345 ;  career,  346 ;  con- 
ducts first  performance  of 
"Parsifal"  in  America,  346; 
goes  to  San  Francisco,  346; 
conducts  first  performance 
of  "Salome,"  346;  other 
novelties  conducted  by  him, 
347;  377 

Hewlett,  Monroe,  368 

Hibbard,  George  A.,  106 

Higgins,  Henry  V.,  21 

Higginson,  Major,  retires  from 
support  of  Boston  Orchestra, 
390 

Hillern,  Baroness  von,  52 

Hinckley,  Allan,  39,  44,  140, 
274 

Hinrichs  Grand  Opera  Com- 
pany. 363 

Hinshaw,  William  Wade,  193, 
213,  265,  284,  295,  373 

Hofmannsthal,  Hugo  von,  118, 
119,  125 

Hogarth,  George,  130 

Holbrooke,  Josef  (see  "  Chil- 
dren of  the  Don  ") 

Holt,  Roland,  174 

Homer,  Louise,  40,  64,  140,  144, 
147,  164,  204,  213;  portrait, 
262 ;  265,  274,  284,  296 

Hooker,  Brian,  his  libretto  of 
"  Mona,"  172  et  seq.;  256 

Horses  on  the  stage  in  "  Her- 
nando  Cortez,"  213 

Howard,  Kathleen,  177,  398, 
412 

Huberdeau,  Gustave,  115,  118, 
124,  126,  229,  235,  251,  305, 
326,  395 

Hughes,  Austin,  295 

Hughes,  Charles  E.,  Governor 
of  N.  Y.  State,  34,  35 

"  Huguenots,    Les,"    opera    by 


Meyerbeer,  178,  260  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

Huillier,  Madame  1',  44,  51,  56 

Humboldt,  152 

Hume,  Miss,  107 

Humperdinck  (see  "  Hansel 
und  Gretel "  and  "  Konigs- 
kinder"),  187;  visits  New 
York,  197;  251 

Huntington,  Archer  M.,  33 

"  Huron,  Le,"  189 

Hyde,  James  Hazen,  21,  33 

'  lago,"  opera  by  Boito,  54 

'  Iberia,"  by  Debussy,  302 

'  Iliad,"  Homer's,  n 

"llica,  librettist,  51,  150 

'  I'm  a  Pilgrim,"  in 

'  Impresario,     The,"     operetta 

with  Mozart's  music,  374 
Indian  music  in  "Fanciulla  del 

West,"  209,  211 

"  Inglesi  in  America,  Gli,"  189 
International  Ballet,  The,  178 
"  Invitation  to  the  Dance," 

Weber's,  345 
loncelli,  Vincenzo,  409 
"  Iphigenia,"  by  Euripides,  367 
Iphigenia,  377 
"  Iphigenia  auf  Tauris,"  opera 

by     Gluck      ("  Iphigenia     en 

Tauride"),     144,     361,    362; 

first  performance,  367 ;  criti- 
cism, 367  et  seq.;  381  (see 

Appendix) 
"  Iris,"  opera  by  Mascagni,  68, 

108,  336,  372  (see  Appendix) 
Irving    Place   Theater,   25,   32, 

214 
"Isabeau,"  opera  by  Mascagni, 

395 

Isouard,  252 
I  star,  324 
Italian    opera,    advent    of,    in 

New  York,  74 

Italy,  Wagner's  influence  in,  53 
Iteration  in  Russian  folksong, 

316 

Jadlowker,  Hermann,  141,  213, 

248,  253,  284 
Jake  Wallace,  208 


460 


INDEX 


James,  Bernice,  39 

Javanese  drama,  410 

"  Jean-Christophe,"  252 

"Je  crains  de  lui  parler  de 
nuit,"  163 

"  Jewels  of  the  Madonna  "  (see 
"  Giojelli  della  Madonna") 

Job,  128 

Jorn,  Carl,  39,  56,  311 

Johnstone,    Miss,    118 

"Jolie  Fille  de  Perth,  La,"  op- 
era by  Bizet,  364 

"Jongleur  de  Notre  Dame, 
Le,"  opera  by  Massenet,  97, 
98;  criticism,  98  et  seq.;  101, 
116,  124,  125,  395  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

Jordan,   Eben   D.,  21,  22 

Jordan,  Mary,  177 

Journet,  Marcel,  284 

Jouvin,  365 

Juch,  Emma,  145 

"  Juive,  La,"  opera  by  Halevy, 

112,    113 

"  Julien,"  opera  by  Charpentier, 
309,  310;  first  performance, 
326  (see  Appendix) 

Kahn,  Otto,  H.,  22 ;  introduces 
"  Count "  Centanini,  27 ;  sup- 
ports Gatti  in  controversy 
with  Dippel,  30,  30;  one  of 
the  founders  of  the  New 
Theater,  33,  33  ;  cablegram  to 
Toscanini,  43 ;  80,  86,  169, 
171,  174,  176.  176,  176;  por- 
trait, 176;  226,  289 

Kaiser,  German,  311,  381,  413 

Kalbeck,  Max,  233 

Kaschowska,  Felice,  39,  39 

Kauffman,  Alfred,  177,  184 

"  Kde  domov  muj,"  49 

Keene,  Thomas  M.,  191 

Keyes,  Margaret,  305 

Keyserling,  3,  395 

Keys  used  in  characterization, 
263 

Kidder,  Kathryn,  339 

Kienzl  (see  "  Ranz  des 
Vaches "  and  "  Evangeli- 
mann  ") 

King  of  Saxony,  sued  by  a 
singer,  380 


"  King's  Children "  (see 
"  Konigskinder  ") 

Kingston,  Morgan,  177 

Kingsway,  London,  Theater 
in,  82;  sold,  84 

Klaw  and  Erlanger,  225,  226 

Klink,    Gabrielle,   229 

Klopstock,  264 

Koch,  Walter,  309 

"  Konigskinder,"  opera  by 
Humperdinck,  38,  139,  178, 
195,  196,  197,  206;  first  per- 
formance, 213 ;  criticism,  213 
et  seq.;  282  (see  Appendix) 

"  Konigin  von  Saba,"  opera  by 
Goldmark,  282 

Korner,  Theodor,  152,  153 

Koster  and  Bial's  Music  Hall, 
92 

Kountze,  W.  DeLancey,  33 

Krehbiel,  portrait,  frontispiece ; 
"  A  Second  Book  of  Operas," 
quoted,  115,  206,  214;  "Chap- 
ters of  Opera,"  quoted,  I,  4, 
13,  54,  66,  84,  92,  176;  ic- 
marks  at  Sembrich  banquet, 
64;  the  libretto  for  Mozart's 
"  Impresario,"  375 

Krehbiel,   Mrs.   H.   E..   64 

Kreidler,   Louis,    177,   295,   296 

Kreisler,  Fritz,  386 

"  Kuhreigen  "  (see  "  Ranz  des 
Vaches  ") 

Kurt,  Melanie,  287,  332,  367; 
portrait,  392 ;  393 

Labia,  Maria,  96,  97,  107 

"  Lakme,"  opera  by  Delibes, 
361  (see  Appendix) 

Lamont,  Thomas    W.,   177 

Language,  original  and  trans- 
lations in  opera,  19,  38,  42, 
129,  143,  165  et  seq.;  182  et 
seq.;  195 

Laparra    (see  "Habanera") 

La  Scala,  Teatro  alia,  in  Milan, 
Wagner's  operas  at,  26,  Gatti 
becomes  director,  27 

Laurentini,  Maria.  370 

Lautenschlager,   Carl,   19,  284 

Lavarenne,  Mile..  101 

Lawrence.  Bishop,  106 

Lazaro,  Hypolito,  397 


INDEX 


461 


Lazarri,  Sylvio  (see  "Saute- 
riot") 

Lecocq  (see  "  Fille  de  Ala- 
dame  Angot"),  399 

Lefebvre,  Marshal  of  France, 
337 

Legal  Aid  Society,  49 

"  Legende  de  Tristan,"  opera 
by  Debussy,  141 

Lehar     (see   "  Zigeunerliebe") 

Lehmann,  Lilli,  9,  380 

Leitmotive  as  symbols,  264 

Le  Lorraine,  M.,  321 

Lena,  Maurice,  99 

Leoncavallo  (see  "•  Pagliacci," 
"  Zaza"),  300 

Leonhardt,  Robert,  328,  332, 
336,  354,  370,  398,  403 

Leoni,  Franco  (see  "  Ora- 
colo"),  336 

Lermontoff,  159 

Leroux,  singer,  115 

Leroux,  Xavier  (see  "  Chemi- 
neau  ") 

Lewis,  Earl,  2/7 

Lexington  Avenue  Theater, 
built  by  Hammerstein,  93 ; 
used  for  vaudeville,  93 ;  oc- 
cupied by  Chicago  Opera 
Company,  93 ;  sold  to  pay 
mortgage,  372,  394 

Librettos,  early  publications  of 
in  America,  188 

Liederkranz,  German,  offers 
banquet  to  Dippel,  31.  403 

"  Linda  di  Chamounix,"  opera 
by  Donizetti,  97 

Lipkowska,  Lydia,  194 

Liszt     (sec    "St.    Elizabeth")  ; 

399 

"  Lobetanz, '  opera  by  Thuille, 
first  performance,  243;  criti- 
cism, 243  et  seq.  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

Local  color  in  opera  music,  53, 
108,  109,  211,  365,  400 

"  Lochaber  no  more,"  306 

"  Lodoletta,"  opera  by  Mas- 
cagni,  398:  first  performance, 
407  (see  Appendix) 

Loeffler,    Charles    Martin,    171 

Loewe,  152 

"  Lohengrin,"   opera   by   Wag- 


ner, first  performance  in 
Italy,  26;  54,  58,  67,  67,  113, 
129,  178,  183,  243,  264,  289, 
345,  359,  415  (see  Appendix) 

London,  opera  season  com- 
pared with  New  York's,  133; 
Hammerstein's  Opera  House 
in,  picture,  82  (see  Hammer- 
stein") 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  230 

Long,  John  Luther,  206 

"  Lord  of  the  Manor,  The," 
190 

Lortzing  (see  "  Czar  und  Zim- 
mermann  ") 

Los  Angeles,  262 

"  Louise,"  opera  by  Charpen- 
tier,  introduced  in  Italy  by 
Gatti,  28;  113,  178,  180,  198, 
226,  287,  301.  302,  303,  304, 
310,  326  (see  Appendix) 

Louisenbund,  151 

Louise,  Queen  of  Prussia,  151, 

153 
"  Love  in  a  Village,"  190 

Low,   Seth,  61 

Lubricity  in  opera,  312 

Lucca,  Pauline,  289 

"  Lucia  di  Lammermoor,"  op- 
era by  Donizetti,  179,  183, 
350,  395  (see  Appendix) 

Ludwig,  Anna,  160 

Ludwig   II,   King  of    Bavaria, 

„  404 

"  Liitzow's  wilde  Jagd,"  152, 
153 

Lully,  130,  166,  199 

Lnsitania,  steamship  sunk  by 
Germans,  381 

"  Lustige    Schuster,    Der,"   399 

Luther,  Gadski  sings  at  cele- 
bration of,  393 ;  404 

Lyceum  Theater,  New  York, 
372 

Lydig,  Philip  M.,  177 

McManeny,  George,  177 
McBride,  John,  270,  272 
McClellan,  Mayor  of  New 

York   City,  34 
McCormack,  John,  81,  112,  194, 

229,  397 
MacDowell    Chorus,  352,  403 


462 


INDEX 


Mackay,  Clarence  H.,  33,  80, 
176,  177,  196,  225,  226 

Mackaye,  Percy,  35,  370,  371 

Macleod,  Norman,  on  Spanish 
music,  302 

"  Madama  Butterfly,"  opera  by 
Puccini,  48,  108,  178,  178,  178; 
history  of,  206;  208,  301,  372, 
397  (see  Appendix) 

"  Madame  Chrysantheme,"  206 

"  Madame  Sans-Gene,"  opera 
by  Giordano,  282;  first  per- 
formance, 336;  criticism,  336 
et  seq.;  335  (see  Appendix) 

"  Madeleine,"  opera  by  Her- 
bert, 309,  311;  first  perform- 
ance, 318;  criticism,  318  et 
seq.  (see  Appendix) 

"  Mademoiselle  Wagner,"  206 

"  Maestro  di  Capella,"  opera 
by  Paer,  139,  142  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

Maeterlinck,  216,  220  (see 
"  Monna  Vanna  ") 

"  Magali,"  song  of,  116 

"  Magic  Flute,  The "  (see 
"  Zauberflote") 

Mahler,  Gustav,  19,  23,  25,  29, 
3i,  39,  55,  56,  140,  141,  160, 
163,  347 

"Maid  Mistress,  The,"  opera 
by  Pergolesi  ("La  Serva 
Padrona"),  373 

"  Maitre  de  Chapelle "  ( see 
"  Maestro  di  Capella  ") 

Malatesta,  Pompilio,  370,  398 

"  Mala  Vita,"  opera  by  Gior- 
dano, 54 

Mancinelli  (see  "  Ero  e  Lean- 
dro  ") 

Mandelli,   Sante,  407 

Manhattan  Life  Insurance 
Company,  90 

Manhattan  Opera  House, 
Hammerstein  (first),  92; 
(second),  70  et  seq.;  mort- 
gaged to  Stotesbury,  79 ;  82 ; 
seasons  1908  to  1910,  94  et 
seq.;  season  1909-10,  IT;  rec- 
ord of  all  seasons  at  (see 
Appendix) 

Mannheim,   costly   scenery   in, 

200 


"  Manon,"  opera  by  Massenet, 
48,  97,  n6,  117,  179,  225,  323, 
395  (see  Appendix) 

"Manon  Lescaut,"  opera  by 
Puccini,  51,  197,  363  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

"  Manru,"  opera  by  Paderew- 
ski,  108 

Mapleson,  Helen,  40 

Maran,  Ernst,  213 

Marcoux,  Vanni,  321,  326 

Mardones,  Jose,  397,  408 

Maretzek,  Max,  281,  289 

Mariani,  Leopoldo,  296 

Marie  Antoinette,  200 

Mario,  281 

Markoe,  Peter,  191 

Marlow,  opera  singer,  56 

"  Marouf,"  opera  by  Rabaud, 
398 ;  first  performance,  398 ; 
criticism,  398  et  seq.  (see 
Appendix) 

"  Marseillaise,  La,"  308,  338, 
38i 

"Marta  of  the  Lowlands," 
44 

"Martha,"  opera  by  Flotow, 
179,  289,  416  (see  Appendix) 

Martin,  Riccardo,  40,  51,  140, 
164,  165,  265,  274,  295 

Martinelli,  Giovanni,  354 

Mascagni  (see  "  Cavalleria 
Rusticana,"  "  Iris,"  "  Amico 
Fritz,"  "  Isabeau,"  and  "  Lo- 
doletta"),  300 

Mascal,   Georges,  305 

"  Maschenka,"  Russian  folk- 
song, 162 

"  Mascotte,  La,"  operetta  (see 
Appendix) 

Mason,  Edith,  371 

Massenet,  115,  116:  "Mademoi- 
selle Wagner,"  124;  150, 
252,  321  (see  "Manon," 
"  Werther,"  "  Griselidis," 
"Jongleur  de  Notre  Dame," 
"  Herodiade,"  "  Sapho," 

"  Navarraise."  "  Cendrillon," 
"Thais,"  "Cid,"  "Portrait 
de  Manon,"  "  Ariane,"  and 
"Don  Quichotte") 

Massiglia,  Count,  45 

Materna,  Amalia,  9 


INDEX 


463 


Matinee     audiences     in     New 

York,  245 
Mattfeld,    Marie,    44,    55,    149, 

149,   160,   210,   213,  253,  295, 

3",  327 

Mattulath  A.,  372 

Matzenauer,  Margarete,  debut, 
243;  274,  284,  317,  332,  403, 
407 

Maubourg,  Jeanne,  204,  216, 
248 

Maxwell,  George,  208 

Mazarin,  Marietta,  118;  por- 
trait, 118;  119 

"  Medecin  malgre  lui,  Le"  (see 
"  Mock  Doctor  ") 

"  Mefistofele,"  opera  by  Boito, 
309-  335 

Mehul,  168 

"  Meistersinger  von  Niirnberg, 
Die,"  opera  by  Wagner,  first 
performance  in  Italy,  26;  67; 
68,  113,  129,  140,  246,  255,  282, 
287,  359,  380,  381,  415  (see 
Appendix) 

Meitschik,  Anna,  160 

Melba,  Nellie,  9,  67,  67,  96,  97, 
194,  395.  396 

Melis,  Carmen,  101,  194 

Meltzer,  Charles  Henry,  266 

Mendelssohn  (see  "  Walpurgis 
Night") 

Mendes,  Catulle,  131,  217 

Merimee,  Prosper,  303 

"  Merlin,"  opera  by  Goldmark, 
146 

"  Merry  Widow,  The,"  oper- 
etta, 64 

"  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor," 
opera  by  Nicolai,  365 

Metropolitan  English  Grand 
Opera  Company,  175 

Metropolitan  Opera  Company, 
plans  for  extension,  21 ;  a 
season  in  Paris,  22;  leases 
Metropolitan  Opera  House, 
22 ;  reorganized,  23 ;  Gatti 
and  Dippel  appointed  joint 
managers,  23 ;  abolishes 
abuses,  23 ;  conflict  between 
managers,  29;  extends  Gatti's 
contract,  30;  appoints  Dippel 
administrative  manager,  31 ; 


joint  managers,  36;  forces 
increased,  37;  59;  rivalry 
with  Hammerstein  in  New 
York  and  Philadelphia,  69 
et  seq.;  policy  of  expansion, 
73.  /8;  establishes  opera  in 
Baltimore,  74 ;  foregoes  guar- 
antee in  Philadelphia,  77 ; 
Dippel  resigns  as  administra- 
tive manager,  78;  courts 
German  opera  patrons,  79; 
affiliates  with  Chicago,  77 ;  re- 
fuses Hammerstein's  offer  of 
merger,  76;  stockholders  in- 
terested in  purchase  of  Ham- 
merstein's properties,  79; 
Cuyler  and  Stotesbury  enter 
directorate,  80 ;  losses  in  sea- 
son 1909-10,  80;  refuses  to 
permit  Hammerstein  to  re- 
enter  operatic  field,  86 ;  se- 
cures injunction  against  him, 
91 ;  rivalry  with  Manhattan, 
94  et  seq.;  speculation  in 
tickets,  95 ;  Debussy's  operas 
announced,  in;  alliances, 
133;  losses,  135,  136;  cost  of 
singers,  136;  increase  of  per- 
sonnel, 140;  influence  of 
Puccini's  publishers,  155 ; 
English  opera  considerations, 
169;  offer  of  prize  for  Eng- 
lish opera,  141,  169  et  seq.; 
affiliated  with  Century  Op- 
era Company,  175;  177;  Gatti 
appointed  sole  manager,  193 ; 
in  Philadelphia,  193 ;  reduces 
forces,  193;  activity  during 
years  of  neutrality,  331 ; 
bringing  back  singers  from 
Europe,  332 ;  Reiss  and  Gilly, 
332;  roster  of  German  sing- 
ers, 332;  falling  off  of  sub- 
scriptions, 332  ;  end  of  affilia- 
tion with  Boston  and  Chi- 
cago Companies,  332;  Gatti 
proclaims  reforms,  333 ;  Ca- 
ruso's honorarium,  333 ;  at- 
titude toward  German  sing- 
ers, 382 

Metropolitan  Opera  House, 
vicissitudes  of  first  twenty- 
five  years,  2;  German  period, 


464 


INDEX 


3,  15,  165;  under  Conried's 
administration,  3 ;  German 
language  banished  from,  4; 
periods  in  its  history,  13; 
rivalry  with  the  Academy  of 
Music,  14,  15 ;  pension  fund, 
18;  rivalry  with  Manhattan 
Opera  House,  19,  69  et  seq. 
(see  Hammerstein  and  Met- 
ropolitan Opera  Company)  ; 
leased  to  Metropolitan  Opera 
Company,  22 ;  directors' 
benefits,  18;  season  1908-09, 
48;  season  1909-10,  133;  sea- 
son, 1910-11,  193;  season 
1911-12,  242;  prices  of  ad- 
mission increased,  267,  j/2; 
ticket  speculation  scandal, 
267  et  seq.;  cost  of  giving  op- 
era at  various  times,  282  et 
seq.;  season  1912-13,  286  et 
seq.;  German  opera  versus 
Italian,  287;  season  1913-14, 
309  et  seq.;  season  1914-15, 
331,  334  et  seq.;  season  1915- 


16,  348  et  seq. 

17,  359  et  seq. 

18,  382  et  seq. 


season  1916- 
season  1917- 
obligation  to 


American  singers,  384;  ten 
seasons  of  opera  tabulated 
(see  Appendix) 

Metropolitan  Real  Estate  and 
Opera  Company,  16;  leases 
house  to  Metropolitan  Opera 
Company,  22 ;  improvements 
in  the  building,  40;  59 

Metropolitan  Trust  Company, 
274 

Meyer.  Charles,  251 

Meyerbeer  (see  "  Huguenots," 
"  Prophete,"  "  Afiricaine," 
"  Dinorah  ") 

Middleton,  Arthur,  287 

Mifflin.  Thomas.    191 

"  Mignon,"  opera  by  Ambroise 
Thomas,  178  (see  Appendix) 

Milda,  Miss,  118 

Mildenberg,  Albert,  173 

Military  operas,  154 

Missiano.  Eduardo,  39,  149,  210 

Mistral,  Frederic,  116 

"  Mock  Doctor,  The,"  opera  by 
Gounod,  373 


Moliere  (see  "  Amour  M4de- 
cin  ") 

"  Mona,"  opera  by  Parker,  171, 
242 ;  first  performances,  255  ; 
criticism,  256  et  seq.;  204, 
318  (see  Appendix) 

"  Monna  Vanna,"  opera  by 
Fevrier,  310;  first  perform- 
ance, 324;  395 

Monsigny   (see  "Deserter") 

Montemezzi,  Italo,  portrait, 
314  (see  "Amore  dei  tre 
Re") 

Monteverde    (see  "  Orfeo  ") 

Monteux,  Pierre,  398,  408 

Morand,   Eugene,   126 

Moranzoni,  Roberto,  372;  por- 
trait, 396;  397,  407,  412 

Mordkin,  139,  198,  201 

Morena,  Berta,  40 

Morgan,  J.  Pierpont,  33,  35 

Moscow,  330 

Moszkowski    (see  "  Boabdil  ") 

Mottl,  Felix,  19,  346 

Mozart     (see    "  Nozze    di    Fi- 

giro,"   "  Zauberflote,"   "  Don 
iovanni,"  "  Impresario,"  and 

"  Bastien     et     Bastienne"): 

and    Smetana,    58,    123;    his 

music  in  New  York,  373,  391, 

410,  416 
"  Mozartiana,"   by    Tschaikow- 

sky,  162 
Miihlmann,  Adolph,  40,  56,  160, 

284 
"  Muette  de  Portici,"  opera  by 

Auber,  53 
Muezzin,   call   to    prayer,    400, 

402 
Mugnone    (see    "  Birichino "), 

78 

Mulford,  Florence,  295 
Municipal  opera,  174  et  seq. 
Muratore,  Lucien,  326 
Murphy,    Lambert,     248,    265, 

295,   311,   227 
Muzio,  Claudia,  408 

Napoleon   Bonaparte,   337,  402 

Naprawnik,  162 

National  music  and  nostalgia, 

306 
National  Opera  Company,  159 


INDEX 


465 


National  schools  of  composi- 
tion and  folksongs,  187 
"  Natoma,"  opera  by  Herbert, 
101,  113,  170,  179;  rejected 
by  Gatti,  196;  226;  first  per- 
formance in  Philadelphia, 
237;  in  New  York,  229; 
criticism,  229  et  seq.  (see 
Appendix) 

"  Naughty  Anthony,"  206 
"  Navarraise,     La,"    opera    by 
Massenet,   108,    116,   146,  364 
(see  Appendix) 
Nepoti,    Ludovico,    149 
Nepoty,  Lucien,  398 
Nero,  as  a  singer,  236  et  seq. 
"  Nero,"  opera  by   Rubinstein, 

159,  237 

"  Nerone,"  opera  by  Bpito,  54 
Netherlands,     bell -ringing     in, 
in;    people    and    languages, 
107 

Neuendorff,  Adolf,  92 
"  Neugirige  Frauen,  Die  "  (see 

"  Donne  curiose  ") 
Nevada,  Emma,  361 
Nevin,     Arthur      (see     "  Twi- 
light ") 
New     Empire    Theater,     New 

York,  372 

Newspapers,  their  frivolous  at- 
titude toward  music,  4,  96 
New  Theater,  The,  4 ;  planned 
by  Conried,  32 ;  foundation 
of,  33  et  seq.;  land  bought, 
33  ;  architects'  plans  approved, 
33  ;  purposes  of  founders,  33  ; 
cornerstone  laid,  34;  dedi- 
cated, 35;  cost  of,  35;  87, 
135 ;  losses  at,  137 ;  season  at, 
137:  138,  193.  273 
New  York,  Opera  Season,  one 
compared  with  European 
cities,  133;  cost  of  opera  in, 
270  et  seq.;  rivalry  with 
Philadelphia,  74 ;  Hammer- 
stein  agrees  not  to  give  opera 
in,  80;  early  opera  in,  190; 
society  and  opera,  14 
Nicolai  (see  "  Merry  Wives  of 

Windsor  ") 

Nicolay,    Constantin,    114,    118, 
229,  235,  251,  305,  321,  326 


Niemann,  Albert,  408 
Nielsen,  Alice,  141,  194 
Nielson,   Francis,   206 
Niessen-Stone,  Matja,  39 
"Night   Bell,   The,"   opera   by 

Donizetti,   373 
Nilsson,   Christine,  9,   396 
"  Noe,"   opera  by  Halevy,  366 
Nogues    (see  "Quo  Vadis?") 
Nordica,    Lillian,    9,    140,    274; 

death  and  career  of,  320,  330 
Noria,  Jane,  27,  158 
"  Norma,"  opera  by  Bellini,  260 
Note,  Jean,  39 
"  Nozze   di   Figaro,"   opera  by 

Mozart,  48,  59,  199,  373    (see 

Appendix) 

Ober,  Margarete,  portrait,  310; 
310,  311,  345,  354,  371,381,393 

"  Ode   to   Joy,"    Schiller's,   414 

Odilion,  Helene,  25 

"  O,  du  Deutschland,  ich  muss 
marschiren,"  152 

Offenbach  (see  '' Contes  d'- 
Hoffmann "  and  "  Barbe- 
Bleue"),  in 

O'Keefe,  John,  100 

"Old  Dog  Tray,"  211 

Open-air  theaters,  247 

Opera  bouffe,   138 

Opera  Comique,  Paris,  133 

"  Oracolo  L',"  opera  by  Leoni, 
335,  336 ;  first  performance, 
341 ;  criticism,  341  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

Oratorio  Society  of  New  York, 
08.  249 

Orefice,   Prof.,  266 

"  Orfeo,"  opera  by  Monteverde, 

((  243,  265 

"  Orfeo  et  Eurydice,"  opera  by 
Gluck,  144  et  seq.;  199,  204, 
368  (see  Appendix) 

Osborne,  Hannah  Jane,  141 

"  Otello,"  opera  by  Verdi,  55, 
67,  97,  301,  355  (see  Appen- 
dix) 

Otto,  Wilhelm,  160 

Ouida,  407 

"  Ouvre   tes   yeux   bleux,"   320 

Ovid,  "  Espistolae  heroidum," 
359 


466 


INDEX 


Paderewski,     Jan,     62       (see 

"  Manru  ") 

Paer  (see  "  Leonore,"  "  Maes- 
tro di  Capella,"  and  "  Ca- 
milla"); "  Pagliacci,"  opera 
by  Leoncavallo,  54,  108,  113, 
146,  179,  253,  336,  363  (see 
Appendix) 

Palm,  Nuremberg  bookseller, 
151,  152 

"Paradise  Lost,"  n 

"  Pardon  de  Ploermel "  (see 
"  Dinorah  ") 

Parepa,  289 

Paris,  Meropolitan  Opera 
Company's  season  in,  22 ;  op- 
era activities  compared  with 
New  York,  134;  330 

Park  Theater,  373 

Parker,  Horatio  W.,  4  (see 
"  Mona,"  "  Hora  Novissima," 
"  A  Wanderer's  Psalm  ")  ; 
wins  prize,  171 ;  sketch  of, 
172;  honored  by  Cambridge 
University,  172;  173,  246; 
portrait,  256;  256;  his  com- 
positions, 262 

"  Parsifal,"  opera  by  Wagner, 
20,  20,  48,  48,  1 68,  178,  185, 
246,  282,  287,  336,  343,  377, 
381,  406,  415  (see  Appendix) 

Paterna,  Coreto,  39 

Patterson,  George  J.,  106 

Patti,  Adelina,  9,  361,  396 

Patti,  Carlotta,  289 

Pavlova,  dancer,  139,  197, 
201 

"  Pecheurs  de  Perles,  Les,"  op- 
era by  Bizet,  97,  361,  361, 
362;  criticism,  362  et  seq. 
(see  Appendix) 

Pelissier  (see  "  Edwin  and 
Angelina") 

"  Pelleas  et  Melisande,"  opera 
by  Debussy,  221,  226,  302, 
410  (see  Appendix) 

"  Pelleas  et  Melisande,"  Mae- 
terlinck's puppet  play,  410 

Pendleton,  Judge,  grants  in- 
junction against  Hammer- 
stein,  91 ;  sustained  on  ap- 
peal, 91 

Penzano,  singer,  96 


Perfall,  Count,  380 

Pergolesi  (see  "  Maid  Mis- 
tress") 

Perier,  M.,  227 

Perini,  Flora,  351,  354 

Periquet,  353 

"  Per   la   gloria,"    125 

Perotti,  Julius,  408 

Perrier,  Martial,  395 

Peter  the  Great,  142 

Petrarch,  125 

Petronius,  237 

Philadelphia-Chicago  Opera 
Company  (see  also  Chicago  - 
Philadelphia  Opera  Com- 
pany), 80,  170,  193,  243,  298 
(see  Appendix) 

Philadelphia  (see  Hammer- 
stein),  22;  72  et  seq.;  his- 
tory of  opera  in,  73 ;  190, 
101 ;  Hammerstein  builds  op- 
era house,  74,  77 ;  his  losses, 
79;  opera  house  sold,  79; 
privilege  of  giving  opera 
abandoned  for  ten  years,  80; 
alliance  with  Chicago,  80; 
Kahn,  Mackaye,  and  Vander- 
bilt  join  directorate,  80;  8r, 
137,  138,  273,  324,  335,  36o, 
363 ;  Metropolitan  Opera 
Company  in,  19,  227 

Philharmonic  Society  of  New 
York,  140,  388 

Philidor,   190 

Phryne,  6,  324 

Piccini,   189 

Pierre  Loti,  206 

Pini-Corsi,  Antonio,  143,  149, 
210,  213,  248,  295,  321,  328 

"  Pipe  of  Desire,  Tfie,"  opera 
by  Converse,  38,  139,  141 ; 
first  performance,  164;  criti- 
cism, 164  et  seq.;  228  (see 
Appendix) 

"  Pique      Dame,"      opera      by 
Tschaikowsky,   38,    139,    140. 
158;  first  performance,   160: 
criticism,    160    et    seq.    (see 
Appendix) 
Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  387 
Plangon,   Pol,   136,  408 
Planquette     (see  "Cloches   de 
Corneville") 


INDEX 


467 


Pocahontas,  189 

Podesti,  Vittorio,  141 

Pointed  music,  214 

Poker    in    musical    diplomacy, 

380 
Polacco,  Giorgio,  326,  341,  351, 

362,  397 

Polesi,  Giovanni,   112 
Ponchielli     (see   "  Gioconda  ") 
"  Pop  Goes  the  Weasel,"  208, 

211 

Porter,  Horace,  45 

"  Portrait  de  Manon,  Le,"  op- 
era by  Massenet,  116 

Possart,  von,  German  trage- 
dian, 25 

Post,  Laura  J.,  59 

Pouschkin,  160,  408,  410 

"  Precieuses  ridicules,  Les,"  op- 
era by  Goetzl,  139 

Preisch,  Frank,  229 

Press,  the  New  York  news- 
paper, fight  between  its  ed- 
itors and  Hammerstein,  102 

Prima  donnas,  quarrels  about, 
6 

"  Prince  Igor,"  opera  by  Boro- 
din, 108,  282,  335,  350;  first 
performance,  351  ;  criticism, 
352;  417  (see  Appendix) 

"  Princesse  d'Auberge,  La,"  op- 
era by  Blockx,  97 ;  first  per- 
formance, 106;  criticism, 
107  et  seq.  (see  Appendix) 

Prisch,  F.  A.,  305 

Prize  offer  for  English  opera, 
169  et  seq. 

"  Prodana  Novesta "  (see 
"Verkaufte  Braut") 

Progressists  in  Italy,  53 

"  Prophete,  Le,"  opera  by 
Meyerbeer,  112,  113,  113,  398, 
407 ;  performances  in  New 
York,  408  (see  Appendix) 

Providence,  R.  I.,  389 

Prussia  and  music,  416 

Puccini  (see  "  Edgar,"  "  Ma- 
non Lescaut,"  "  Boheme," 
"  Tosca,"  "  Fanciulla  del 
West,"  "  Villi,"  "  Madama 
Butterfly ")  ;  a  family  of 
musicians,  51;  53;  influ- 
ence at  Metropolitan  Opera 


House,  155;  visits  to  the 
United  States,  197;  portrait, 
204;  reception  in  Metropol- 
itan Opera  House,  205;  300, 
301,  316 

"  Puppenfee  "  ballet,  139 
Puppet  plays  and  operas,  410 
Purcell,  Henry,  185,  187 
"  Puritani,    I."   opera    by    Bel- 
lini, 113    (see  Appendix) 

Quarti,  Ariodante,  39 
Quinault,  130,  199,  201,  203 
"  Qui  facit  per  alium  facit  per 

se,"  276 

"  Quo  Vadis  ? "  opera  by 
Nogues,  83;  first  perform- 
ance, 235 ;  criticism,  235  et 
seq.;  306  (see  Appendix) 

Rabaud,  Henri  (see  "  Ma- 
rouf ")  ;  portrait,  398;  398 

Rabinoff,  225 

Raisa,  Rosa,  portrait,  394;  395, 
395 

"  Rakoczy  March,"  306 

Rameau,   288 

Randa,  Mme.,  44 

Rantzenberg,  Mary,  39,  51 

"  Ranz  des  Vaches,"  opera  by 
Kienzl,  287 ;  first  perform- 
ance, 304 ;  criticism,  304  et 
seq. 

Rappold,  Marie,  40,  204,  354, 
367 

Rasoumowsky,  the  E  minor 
quartet  by  Beethoven,  297 

Ravogli,  Sophia  and  Giuha, 
146 

"  Reconciliation,  The,"  191 

Redding,  Joseph,  196,  226,  227, 
231 

Reed,  Stuart,  291 

Reger,  Max,  10 

Regis,   George,   158 

Reinagle,   Alexander,  192 

Reinagle,  Alexander  Robert, 
192 

Reiner,   Marcel,  213,  253.  295 

Reiss,  Albert,  40,  44,  56,  140, 
204,  210,  213,  265,  284,  295, 
296,  311,  327,  332,  370,  372, 
375,  398 


468 


INDEX 


Rejane,  French  actress,  339 

Renaud,  Maurice,  77,  81,  96, 
98,  99,  112,  114,  194,  235 

Republic  Theater,  82 

Reschigliani,  Vincenzo,  107, 
210,  248,  296,  327,  336,  408, 
409 

"Retrospections  in  America," 
192 

Revision  of  new  operas,  294 

Revolutionary  airs,  French, 
338  et  seq. 

"  Rhapsodic  espagnole,"  302 

"  Rheingold,"  opera  by  Wag- 
ner, first  performance  in 
Italy,  26;  282,  350  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

Ricci,  the  Brothers  (see  "  Cris- 
pino  e  la  Comare") 

"  Richard  Cceur  de  Lion,"  op- 
era by  Gretry,  163 

Ricordi,  Tito,  and  his  publish- 
ing house,  55,  85,  172,  172, 
173,  196,  208,  249 

"  Ridendo  castigat  mores,"  415 

Riegelman,    Mabel,   250,   251 

"  Rienzi,"  opera  by  Wagner, 
first  performance  in  Italy, 
26 

"  Rigoletto,"  opera  by  Verdi, 
97,  113,  179  (see  Appen- 
dix) 

Rimsky-Korsakow  (see  "  Coq 
d'Or"),  352 

"  Ring  des  Nibelungen,  Der," 
tetralogy  by  Wagner,  178, 
414  (see  Appendix) 

"Rip  Van  Winkle,"  opera  by 
Bristow.  228 

Ritter,  Alexander,  247 

Robeson,  Lila,  327,  407 

Robinson,   Anastasia,  8,    126 

Roche,  Henri  Pierre,  395 

Roget  de  Lisle,  338 

Rolland,  Romaine,  343 

Rolli,  126 

"  Romeo  et  Juliette,"  opera  by 
Gounod,  67,  179,  198,  225, 
246,  385  (see  Appendix) 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  President 
of  the  United  States,  34 

Root,  Elihu,  35 

Roquette,  Otto,  404 


Rosa  Opera  Company,  176 

"  Rosalie  the  Prairie  Flower," 

208 

Rose,  Johann  Wilhelm,  189 
"  Rosenkavalier,    Der,"    opera 

by  Richard  Strauss,  282,  309, 

310;  first  performance,  311; 

329  (see  Appendix) 
Rossi,   Giulio,  39,   51,  56,   149, 

210,  248,  284,  296,  341,  370, 

398 
Rossini         (see        "  Barbiere," 

"  Guillaume     Tell,"     "  Cene- 

rentola,"       "  Signer       Brus- 

chino  "),  142,  290 
Rostand      (see     "  Cyrano     de 

Bergerac") 
Rothier,    Leon,    193,    216,    222, 

274;  portrait,  296;  296,  328, 

362,    398 

Rothmeyer,  Adolph,  61 
Rousseau,  201 
"  Rousslan  et  Ludmilla,"  opera 

by  Glinka,  159 
Rovvson,  Mrs.,  192 
Rubinstein       (see     "  Nero  ")  ; 

lack    of    nationalism    in    his 

music,   159 
Ruffo,  Titta.  287 
Rullman,     Fred,     270;     ticket 

agency,  271.  274 
Russell,  Henry,  22,  78 
Russian  ballet,  81,  243,  410 
Russian  operas   in  the  United 

States,  158 
Ruysdael.  Basil,   194,  216,  253, 

265,  266,   295,  311,  354,  370, 

403,  408,  409 

Sachetto,  Rita,   143 

"  Saint  Elizabeth,"  oratorio  by 
Liszt,  397,  398;  first  per- 
formance as  an  opera,  398; 
as  an  oratorio.  403 :  403,  416 
(see  Appendix) 

Saint  Elizabeth  of  Hungary, 
405 

St.  Petersburg  (Petrograd), 
85,  134.  330 

"St.   Peter's,"  hymn-tune,   192 

Saint-Saens'  little  known  op- 
eras, 155  (see  "  Samson  et 
Dalila  ") 


INDEX 


469 


"  Salome,"  opera  by  Richard 
Strauss,  17,  94,  96,  97,  102; 
rejected  at  Metropolitan  Op- 
era House,  103 ;  abandoned 
by  Conried,  103 ;  purchased 
by  Hammerstein,  103;  in 
French,  105,  106;  perversity 
in,  105;  in  Philadelphia 
and  Boston,  106;  114,  120, 
178,  212,  312,  324  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 
"Salome,"  by  Oscar  Wilde, 

"9,  125 
Sammarco,  Mario,  96,  112,  229, 

230,  233,  250 

"  Samson  et  Dalila,"  opera  by 
Saint-Saens,  97,  98,  179,  309, 
335,  350  (see  Appendix) 
Sanderson,   Sybil,   124 
San  Francisco,  61,  298 
San  Martino,  Count,  21 
"  Sapho,"   opera   by   Massenet, 
in,  113,   114,  115    (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

Sapio,  Maurio,  295 
Sardou    (see  "Madame   Sans- 

Gene"),  337 
"  Sauteriot,  Le,"  opera  by  Laz- 

zari.  395 

Savage,    H.   W.,    and    English 
Opera  Company,  27,  39,  125, 
176,  177,  207,  311 
Scalchi,   Sofia,   146 
"Scarlet    Letter,    The,"    opera 

by  Damrosch,  228 
Scenic  splendor  in  old  operas, 

200 
"  Schauspieldirektor,  Der  "  ( see 

"  Impresario") 
Schikaneder,  374,  375 
Schiller,  399,  413,  414 
Schindler,  Kurt,  352 
Schmedes,  Erik,  39,  44 
Schlegel,  the  brothers,  152 
Schlegel,    Carl,    311,   332,    370, 

403,  408 

Schneider,   Louis,  3/4 
Schonberg,  Arnold,   10,  n 
"  Schone   Galatea,    Die,"   oper- 
etta by  Suppe,  139 
Schott,  Anton,  408 
Schratt,  Kathi,  25 
Schubert,  Erik,  39 


Schubert,   Franz,   "  Soirees   de 
Vienne,"  304;  391,  415,  416 
Schuch,  Hofrath  von,  360 
Schumann,  10,  62,  391,  415,  416 
Sconamiglio,  conductor,  112 
Scott,  Henri,  118,  124 
Scotti,  Antonio,  32,  40,  60,  60, 
64,  140,  248,  274,  284,  340,  341 
"  Second  Book  of  Operas,  A," 
by   H.    E.    Krehbiel,   quoted, 
115,  206,   214,    148,  251,  296, 
3ii 
"  Secret     of     Susanne "     (see 

"  Segreto  di  Susanna  ") 
Seeler,   Edgar  V.,  33 
Seebach,  Count,  378 
"  Segreto  di  Susanna,  II,"  op- 
era    by     Wolf-Ferrari,     179, 
226,    233 ;    first    performance 
in  New  York,  234;  criticism, 
234;    249,   250    (see   Appen- 
dix) 

Segurola,  Andrea,  98,  158,  204, 
210,  214,  248,  248,  251,  296, 
296,  311 

Seidl,  Anton,  and  Wagner's  op- 
eras in  Italy,  26;  283,  342 
Seligman,  Isaac  N.,  174 
Sembach,    Johannes,    287,    332, 
345,  .354,  367,  370,  381,  393 
Sembrich,  Marcella,  retirement 
of    from   opera,  3 ;   supports 
Mr.  Dippel,  29;  40;  farewell 
to  operatic  stage,  59  et  scq.; 
gifts  to,  6 1 ;  benefactions  to 
orchestra,     61 ;      speech     of 
thanks,    61 ;    musicians    give 
her  a  banquet.  62 ;  repertory 
waltz,  65 ;    Mr.   Henderson's 
poetic   tribute   to,   62 ;   activ- 
ities   after     retirement,    66; 
125,    136,   284,   361,   364,    306 
"  Serenade     for     Strings,"    by 

Tschaikowsky,    162 
"  Serva     Padrona,     La "     (see 

"  Maid   Mistress  ") 
Severina,  singer,  96,   107,   118 
Sewickley,  Pa.,  387 
Sexual  perversity  in  "  Elektra," 

119 

Shakespeare,  "  Hamlet,"  35 ; 
"  Antony  and  Cleopatra,"  35  ; 
"Cymbeline,"  128;  321,  325; 


470 


INDEX 


his   subjects   in  opera,  355; 
356,  371 

"  Shanewis,      opera    by    Cad- 
man,  398;  first  performance, 
398;  411    (see  Appendix) 
"  Siberia,"  opera  by  Giordano, 
97,  108,  113    (see  Appendix) 

"Siegfried,"  opera  by  Wag- 
ner, 282,  344  (see  Appen- 
dix) 

Sienkiewicz,  235 

"Signer  Bruschino,"  opera  by 
Rossini,  139 

Silcher,   307 

Singers,  cost  of,  136 

Singspiel,  138 

"  Sirenes,    Les,"    222 

"  Six  francs  for  an  E-string !  ", 
168 

Skroup,  149 

"  Slaves  in  Algeria,"  192 

Slezak,  Leo,  141,  160,  163,  274 

Smareglia,  Anton  (see  "  Vas- 
sal von  Szigeth"),  151 

Smetana  (see  "  Verkaufte 
Braut");  Mozart's  style  in 
his  music,  58;  Wagner's  in- 
fluence, 58;  187 

Smirnoff,  Dmitri,  193 

Smith,  Captain  John,  189 

Smith,  Elihu  Hubbard  (see 
"  Edwin  and  Angelina  ") 

Smith,  Harry  B.,  291 

Smith,    Queenie,    409 

Snelling,   Lillia,   164 

Society  and  opera,  103 

Society  for  the  Promotion  of 
National  Opera,  228 

Society  of  American  Singers, 
372 

Society  for  the  Promotion  of 
Opera  in  English,  173 

"  Sonnambula,  La,"  opera  by 
Bellini  (see  Appendix) 

Sonneck.  O.  G.,  188, 189, 190, 191 

Sonnenthal,   German  actor,  25 

Soomer,  Walter,  39 

Sophocles,  119 

Sothern,  E.  H.,  371 

"  So  viel'   Stern',"   173 

Sparkes,  Leonora,  39,  149,  160, 
164,  204,  216,  296,  321,  336, 
367 


Speculation  in  theater  tickets, 
81,  95 ;  a  scandal,  267  et  seq.; 
attempts  to  reform,  269; 
large  subscriptions  by  agents, 
270;  introduction  of  system 
at  Metropolitan  Opera  House, 
270 ;  Grau  and  Rullman,  270 ; 
Tyson  and  Company's  pur- 
chases in  1913,  274;  Rull- 
man's  purchases,  274;  Rich- 
ard J.  Hartman  obtains  con- 
trol of  Tyson  and  Company, 
274;  tickets  pledged  as  col- 
lateral, 275 ;  Metropolitan 
Trust  Company  advances 
loan,  274 ;  Metropolitan 
Opera  Company  denies  that 
agency  purchasers  are  sub- 
scribers, 275,  276;  subscrib- 
ers offered  an  opportunity  to 
repurchase,  276;  Mr.  Baulies 
alleges  that  Tyson  and  Com- 
pany have  no  title,  277 ;  Mr. 
Cuyler  denies  knowledge  of 
hypothecation,  277 ;  indigna- 
tion meeting  of  subscribers, 
277;  the  District  Attorney 
intervenes,  278 ;  Hartman  ar- 
rested, 278:  criminal  charge 
not  pressed,  278;  Hartman 
imprisoned  on  another  ac- 
cusation, 278 ;  Metropolitan 
Company  invites  direct  sub- 
scription, 271 

Spetrino,  conductor,  347 

"  Spia,   La,"  opera  by  Ardlti, 
228 

"Spoil'd  Child,  The,"  190 

Spontini        (see      "  Hernando 
Cortez") 

Stagno,  Roberto,  408 

Stahlschmidt,  Arthur  E.,  174 

Stanley,  Helen,  305 

Stanton,   Edmund   C.,  83,   151, 
379,  38o 

"  Star- Spangled  Banner,  The," 

35,  49,  377.  389 
Stassow,  352 
Steibelt,  252 
Stewart,  Grant.  318 
Stillman,  James,  33 
Storace,  189 
Stotesbury,  E.  T.,  lends  Ham- 


INDEX 


47i 


merstein  money,  75,  79;  he 
and  others  buy  out  Ham- 
merstein's  interests,  79,  80, 
82 

Stracciari,   Riccardo,   395 

"  Stradella,"  opera  by  Flotow, 
289  (see  Appendix) 

Stransky,  Josef,  388 

Strauss,  Johann  (see  "  Fleder- 
maus "  and  "  Zigeuner- 
baron  ") 

Strauss,  Richard  (see  "  Sa- 
lome," "  Feuersnot,"  "  Elek- 
tra,"  "  Rosenkavalier  "),  10, 
112;  and  Wagner,  120;  187, 
247,  312,  369 

Streets  of  Cairo,  Chicago  Ex- 
position, 401 

Sturani,  conductor,  112 

Subscriptions  to  opera  easily 
obtained,  195 

Sugana,  Luigi,  250 

Sun,  The,  newspaper,  quoted, 
289,  353,  412 

"  Sulamita,  La,"  opera  by 
Wolf-Ferrari,  250 

Sundelius,  Marie,  367,  371,  409, 
412 

Suppe,  Franz  von  (see 
"  Schone  Galatea  ") 

"  Susanna's  Geheimniss  "  (see 
"  Segreto  di  Susanna") 

Sussex,  steamer  torpedoed  by 
the  Germans,  354 

Swann,  District  Attorney  of 
New  York,  269 

Swift,  Jonathan,  lampoons 
singers,  8 

Symbolism  in  opera,  221 

"  Sylphides,  Les,"  ballet,  139 

Sylva,  Eloi,  408 

Sylva,  Marguerite,  227 

"  Sylvia,"  ballet,  139 

Sylvestre,  Armand,  126 

Szendrei,  Alfred,  179 

"  Tales  of  Hoffmann "  (see 
"  Contes  d'Hoffmann") 

Tamagno,   Francesco,  08,  408 

"  Taming  of  the  Shrew " 
(see  "  Widerspanstigen  Zah- 
mung  ") 

Tancredi,  Miss,  107 


"Tancredo,"  opera  by  Bertoni, 
148 

Tango,  Egisto,  141 

"  Tannhauser,"  opera  by  Wag- 
ner, first  time  in  Italy,  20; 
58,  67,  67,  113,  129,  1 68,  178, 
244,  289,  343,  377,  404,  405, 
414  (see  Appendix) 

Tatlock,  J.  S.  P.,  37i 

Tato-Lango,  Mile.,  118 

Taubert,  374 

Tauscher,  Hans,  activities  in 
behalf  of  Germany,  382 

Taylor,  H.,  190 

Tecchi,  Giuseppe,  40 

Tegani,  Riccardo,  336,  370 

Tennyson,  262,  325 

Terpnos,  237 

Tetrazzini,  Luise,  96,  112,  361, 

395 

Teyte,  Maggie,  251 

"  Thai's,"  opera  by  Massenet, 
loo,  101,  114,  116,  124,  178, 
178,  226,  287,  324,  361,  395 
(see  Appendix) 

Theater  tickets,  speculation  in, 
81,  95,  267  et  seq. 

Theatrical  companies,  early 
in  America,  73 

"  Theuerdank,"  opera  by 
Thuille,  246,  247 

Thibaut,  318 

Thomas,  Ambroise,  321 

Thomas,  Augustus,  35 

Thomas,  Goring  (see  "  Es- 
meralda  ") 

Thomas,  Theodore,  145,  149, 
150,  403 

"  Thousand  Nights  and  a 
Night,  A,"  399,  400 

Thuille.  Ludwig  (see  "  Lobe- 
tanz,"  "  Theuerdank,"  "  Gu- 
gelino")  ;  243,  246;  his  music 
in  America,  249 

Ticket  speculation  in  New 
York,  81,  95,  267  et  seq. 

"  Tiefland,"  opera  by  D'Al- 
bert,  28,  38;  first  perform- 
ance in  America,  44;  criti- 
cism, 44  et  seq.;  48,  179 
(see  Appendix) 

Tiersot,   148 

Tiffany,  Maria,  371 


472 


INDEX 


"Tilda,"      opera      by      Cilea, 

54 
Times  Building  Ticket  Agency, 

270 
Times,  The,  newspaper,  quoted, 

329,  334 

Timotheus  of  Miletus,  ban- 
ished from  Sparta,  120 

Toedt,  Mrs.  Theodore  J., 
64 

Tofts,  Mrs.,  7,  8 

"  Tosca,"  opera  by  Puccini,  97, 
113,  178,  198,  206,  397  (see 
Appendix) 

Toscanini,  Arturo,  20;  en- 
gaged for  the  Metropolitan 
Opera  House,  22 ;  appointed 
musical  director,  23 ;  in- 
troduced to  the  New  York 
press,  22;  taste  in  music,  28; 
fondness  for  Wagner,  28; 
devotion  to  German  opera, 
36;  described  in  prospectus, 
37;  39;  his  conducting,  42; 
career,  43 ;  retirement  from 
Metropolitan  Opera  House, 
43 ;  cablegram  sent  by  Kahn, 
43;  59;  78,  79,  140,  141,  144, 

146,    147,    200,    204,    210,    2l6, 

247,  273,  273,  274,  295,  318 
328;  breaks  down  in  health, 
336,  342 ;  attitude  toward 
German  opera,  347;  depar- 
ture from  New  York,  348 

Train,  Arthur  C,  269 

Translations  (see  Language, 
etc.),  166,  178 

"  Traviata,"  opera  by  Verdi, 
60,  113,  178,  194,  330,  395 
(see  Appendix) 

Trentini,  Emma,  96,  112 

Tribune,  The  New  York,  news- 
paper, quoted,  I,  9,  26,  27, 
42,  45,  165,  210,  220,  288,  327, 
342,  352,  385 

Tristan  und  Isolde,"  opera  by 
Wagner,  20,  31,  58,  120,  131, 
140,  178,  243,  245,  282,  330, 
344,  381  (see  Appendix) 

"  Trompeter  von  Sakkingen, 
Der,"  opera  by  Nessler,  384 

"  Trovatore,  II,"  opera  by 
Verdi,  113  (see  Appendix) 


"Troyens,  Le,"  opera  by  Ber- 
lioz, 116,  156 

Tschaikowsky  (see  "  Pique 
Dame,"  "  Serenade  for 
Strings,"  "  Mozartiana")  ; 
his  melancholy,  161 ;  and 
Wagner,  161 ;  and  Mozart, 
161,  162;  and  Naprawnik,  162 

Tugendbund,  151 

"  Twilight,"  opera  by  Arthur 
Nevin,  196,  228 

"Two  Little  Wooden  Shoes," 
407 

Twombly,  Hamilton  McK.,  33 

Tyson  and  Brother,  272 

Tyson  and  Company,  270,  274, 
276 

Tyson  Company,  270 

"  Ugonotti  "  (see  "  Hugue- 
nots ") 

United   Booking   Company,  90 

United  Theater  Ticket  Cor- 
poration, 270 

Urlus,  Jacques,  332 

Valerie,  Odette,  97 

Vallez,  Louis,  98,  107 

Vallier,  114 

Van   Cortlandt,   Robert  B.,  33 

Vanderbilt,  Cornelius,  33 

Vanderbilt,  William  K.,  30,  80, 
86,  176,  226 

Vanderlip,  Frank  A.,  177 

Van  Duyse,  Prudens,  no 

Van  Dyck,  Rosina,  216,  311, 
327 

Van  Rooy,  Anton,  284 

Van  Zandt,  Marie,  361 

"  Vassal  von  Szigeth,"  opera 
by  Smareglia,  55,  151 

Vaucaire,  302 

Verdi  (see  "  Falstaff,"  "  Aida," 
"  Manzoni  Requiem,"  "  Tra- 
viata,"  "Trovatore," 
"Otello,"  "Forza  del  Des- 
tino,"  "  Rigoletto,"  "  Don 
Carlos,"  "Ballo  in  Ma- 
schera,"  "Ernani"),  54,  59, 
300 ;  and  Wagner,  301 ;  365 : 
on  how  a  Napoleon  should 
sing,  337 

"  Verkaufte  Braut,  Die, '  opera 


INDEX 


473 


by  Smetana,  28,  38,  48,  49; 
first  performance,  55 ;  criti- 
cism, 56  et  seq.  (see  Appen- 
dix) 

Vernon,  Grenville,  327,  352 

"  Versiegelt,"  opera  by  Blech, 
139;  first  performance,  253; 
criticism,  253  et  seq.  (see 
Appendix) 

Verstowsky  (see  "  Askold's 
Tomb  ") 

Venturini,  singer,  107,  114,  118, 
235,  250,  305,  305,  321 

Vestris  family,  201 

Vestvali,  Felicita,  145 

Victoria  Theater,  New  York, 
82,  84,  84 

Vienna  opera  season  compared 
with  New  York's,  134 

"  Vienna  Waltzes,"  ballet,   139 

Vieulle,  98 

Villa,  115,  124 

"  Villi,  Le,"  opera  by  Puccini, 
28,  31,  38,  48;  first  perform- 
ance, 50;  criticism,  50;  53, 
160,  248  (see  Appendix) 

Villoteau,  402 

"  Violin  Maker  of  Cremona, 
The,"  in,  113 

"  Vita  Nuova,"  oratorio  by 
Wolf-Ferrari,  235,  249 

Von  Biilow,  Hans,  300 

Von  Chezy,  Frau,  344 

Von   Schwind,   Moritz,  404 

Wagner,  Richard  (see  "  Parsi- 
fal," "  Ring  des  Nibelungen," 
"Tristan  und  Isolde," 
"  Rienzi,"  "  Fliegende  Hol- 
lander," "  Tannhauser,"  "  Lo- 
hengrin," "  Meistersinger," 
"  Rheingold,"  "  Walkitre," 
"  Siegfried,"  "  Gotterdam- 
merung")  ;  criticism,  10;  first 
performance  of  his  operas 
in  Italy,  26;  influence  in 
Italy,  54 ;  and  Greek  chorus, 
120;  at  the  Manhattan  Op- 
era House,  129;  166,  186;  at 
Metropolitan  Opera  House, 
287 ;  relation  to  the  Italian 
veritists,  300;  influenced  by 
Weber,  342  et  seq.;  and 


Verdi,  365 ;  391 ;  his  dramas 
after  the  war,  413  et  seq.; 
ethics  of  his  dramas,  413  et 
seq. 

Wakefield,  Henrietta,  40,  55, 
216,  266 

Walden,  Lord  Howard  de,  83, 
84 

"  Walkiire,  Die,"  opera  by 
Wagner,  26,  38,  68,  289  (see 
Appendix) 

Wallace,  186 

"  Wally,  La,"  opera  by  Cata- 
lani,  28,  38,  48,  50,  51 ;  first 
performance,  51 ;  criticism,  51 
et  seq.;  160,  248  (see  Appen- 
dix) 

"  Walpurgis  Night,"  265 

Walter,  Edna,  213 

Walters,  Henry,  33 

Walter-Villa,  Mme.,  115,  118, 
123 

War,  the  struggle  of  1914- 
1918,  influences  changes  in 
conditions,  i,  41 ;  during 
years  of  neutrality,  331  et 
seq.;  376  et  seq.;  how  it  af- 
fected the  Metropolitan  op- 
era, 3/6 ;  German  opera  in 
early  part  of  period,  377 ; 
Bodanzky,  377 ;  German  op- 
eras and  singers  retained, 
377 ;  managers  in  Germany 
forbid  American  contracts, 
378;  announcement  of  the 
declaration  at  opera  house, 
381 ;  protests  against  Mme. 
Gadski,  382,  383,  384;  effects 
of  America's  entrance,  386 
et  seq.;  taxes  on  amuse- 
ments, 388,  300 ;  compels 
changes  in  Philharmonic 
Society,  388;  president  of 
Musical  Union  impeached, 
388;  Kunwald  and  Muck  in- 
terned, 389;  Boston  Sym- 
phony Orchestra  turned  over 
to  trustees,  390;  growth  of 
intolerance  toward  German 
music,  391 ;  German  lan- 
guage banished  from  song 
recitals,  391  ;  Philharmonic 
Society  of  New  York  elimi- 


474 


INDEX 


nates  music  of  living  German 
composers,  392 ;  Metropolitan 
Opera  Company  abolishes 
German  performances,  392 ; 
cancels  contracts  with  Ger- 
man singers,  393 ;  probable 
effects  on  the  future,  413 ; 
righteousness  of  the  dismis- 
sal of  German  singers,  417 

Warburg,  Paul  M.,  177 

Warnery,  Edmond,  227,  250, 
321,  326 

Warrum,  Helen,  321 

Wartburg  festival,  404 

Washington,  D.  C.,  274 

Weber  (see  "  Euryanthe," 
"  Freischiitz,"  and  "  Invita- 
tion to  the  Dance  "),  152, 153, 
154;  influence  on  Wagner, 
342  et  seq. 

Weil,  Hermann,  debut,  243; 
253,  266,  284,  311,  332,  345, 
367,  393 

Weinstein,  Ruth,  311 

"  Werther,"  opera  by  Massenet, 
116,  124,  225,  323  (see  Ap- 
pendix) 

Wheeler,   Arthur  and   Walter, 

235 

White,  Caroline,  233,  250 

White,  Stanford,  33 

Whitehill,  Clarence,  Portrait, 
140;  141,  164,  167,  354, 
493 

Whitman,  Governor  of  New 
York  State,  269,  270 

Whitney,  Henry  Payne,  33, 
176.  177 

Whole  note  scale,  288 

Wickham,  Florence,  149,  160, 
213,  216 

"  Widerspanstigen  Zahmung, 
Der,"  opera  by  Goetz,  350, 
35ii  354;  history  and  criti- 
cism, 355  et  seq.;  377  (see 
Appendix) 

Widmann,  Joseph  Viktor,  354 

Wilde,  Oscar,  101,  105,  119, 
125 

"  WilhelnHis  von  Nassauen," 
in 


William  I,  German  Emperor, 
152 

Williamsburg,  Va.,   73 

Willis,   N.   P.,   152 

Wilson,  B.  Orme,  33 

Wilson,  Francis,  291 

Wilson,  Wqodrow,  President 
of  the  United  States,  377 

Winthrop,  Henry  Rogers,  33, 
177 

Witherspoon,  Herbert,  39,  140, 
164,  265,  266,  274,  284 

Wittkowski,  Marta,  250 

Woehning,  Paula,  40 

Wolf-Ferrari  (see  "  Segreto 
di  Susanna,"  "  Donne  curi- 
ose,"  "  Vita  Nuova,"  "  Am- 
ore  Medico,"  "  Sulamita," 
"  Cenerentola"),  233;  por- 
trait, 234;  visits  America, 
248;  249,  319 

World  premieres,  doubtful 
value  of,  215 

Wulman,  Paolo,  149 

"Yankee  Doodle,"  191 

Zandonai  (see  "  Francesca  da 
Rimini,"  "  Conchita  ") 

Zangarini,  G.,  204,  302 

Zanoni,  Camillo,  341 

"  Zauberflote,"  opera  by  Mo- 
zart, 68,  162,  289,  373  (see 
Appendix) 

"Zaza,"  opera  by  Leoncavallo, 
in 

Zenatello,  Giovanni,  96,  112, 

Zepilli,  Alice,  96,  107,  235 

Zerola,  tenor,  112 

Ziegler,  Edward,  379 

"  Zigeunerbaron  "  (also  "  Gyp- 
sy Baron"),  operetta  by  Jo- 
hann  Strauss,  20;  staged  by 
Conried,  25 

"  Zigeunerliebe,"  operetta  by 
Lehar,  139 

Zola,   Emile,   156,   157 

Zoppet,  open-air  theater  at, 
247 

"Zu  Strassburg  auf  der 
Schanz,"  307 


By 


HENRY    EDWARD     KREHBIEL 


Musical  critic  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  Author  of  "Music 
and  Manners  in  the  Classical  Period,"  'Studies  in  the  Wag- 
nerian  Drama,"  "  How  to  Listen  to  Music,"  etc. 


CHAPTERS  OF  OPERA 

With  70  portraits  and  pictures  of  Opera  Houses.     $3.00 

The  first  seven  chapters  deal  with  the  earliest  operatic  per- 
formances in  New  York.  Then  follows  a  brilliant  account 
of  the  first  quarter-century  of  the  Metropolitan,  1883-1908,  in- 
cluding Abbey's  first  disastrous  Italian  season,  seven  seasons 
of  German  Opera  under  Leopold  Damrosch  and  Stanton,  the 
temporary  eclipse  of  German  by  French  and  Italian  opera  and 
the  return  of  Teuton  works,  the  burning  of  the  opera  house, 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  American  Opera  Company,  and  the 
coming  and  passing  of  Grau  and  Conried.  Then  comes  the 
opening  of  Oscar  Hammerstein's  Manhattan  Opera  House  and 
the  first  two  seasons  therein,  1906-08. 

"  Most  complete  and  authoritative  .  .  .  pre-eminently  the 
man  to  write  the  book  .  .  .  full  of  the  spirit  of  discerning 
criticism.  .  .  .  Delightfully  engaging  manner,  with  humor, 
allusiveness  and  an  abundance  of  the  personal  note." — Richard 
Aldrich  in  New  York  Times  Review. 

MORE  CHAPTERS  OF  OPERA 

1908-1918 

With  40  illustrations  from  portraits,  repertories,  and  full  index 
$3.50 

The  decade  here  covered  included  Hammerstein's  struggle 
jn  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  London,  his  defeat  but  last- 
ing influence,  partly  through  the  Chicago  Opera  Company,  the 
commencement  of  Gatti-Casazza's  long  reign  at  the  Metropoli- 
tan;  the  failures  of  the  Opera  Lyrique  at  the  New  Theatre, 
and  later  of  the  Century  Opera's  two  noteworthy  seasons 
there  of  popular-priced  English  Opera ;  the  coming  to  Amer- 
ica of  Puccini,  Humperdinck,  Galli-Curci,  Toscanini,  etc. 

There  are  also  interesting  excursions  into  such  matters  as 
"  A  Critic's  Duty  to  His  Art,"  "  Translations,"  "  The  Rus- 
sian Dancers,"  "  Early  American  Operas,"  "  The  Effect  of  the 
War  on  Concerts  as  Well  as  on  Opera,"  etc.,  etc. 

HENRY     HOLT    AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW   YORK 


BOOKS     ON     MUSICIANS 

BY   ROMAIN   HOLLAND 

Author  of  "Jean-Christophe,"  and  called  by  W.  J.  HENDER- 
SON "  The  most  interesting  of  living  critics  of  Music  and 
Musicians." 

SOME  MUSICIANS  OF  FORMER  DAYS 

Translated  from  the  fourth  French  edition  Ly  MARY  BLAIK- 

LOCK.     $1.50  net. 

The  Place  of  Music  in  General  History;  The  Beginning  of 
Opera;  The  First  Opera  Played  in  Paris;  Notes  on  Lully,  and 
shorter  but  vivid  papers  on  Gluck,  Gr6try,  and  Mozart. 

".  .  .  One  of  the  greatest  of  living  musical  scholars.    He  is  also  the 
most  interesting  of  contemporaneous  writers   .  .  .  Written   with   bril- 
liant scholarship,  with  critical  insight  and  with  flashes  of  human  sym- 
gathy   and  humor.  .  .  .  Every  lover  of   music  should  hasten   to   give 
imself  the  pleasure  of  a  persual  of  this  delightful  volume  which  radi- 
ates learning,  keen  judgment  and  sympathetic  humor." — New  YorkSun. 

MUSICIANS  OF  TO-DAY 

Translated  from  the  fifth  French  edition  by  MARY  BLAIKLOCK. 
With  an  Introduction  by  CLAUDE  LANDI.  324  pp.    $1.50  net. 
Berlioz's  stormy  career  and  music,  Wagner's  "Siegfried" 
and   "Tristan,''   Saint-Saens,    Vincent  D'Indy,   Hugo    Wolf, 
Debussy's    "  Pelleas  and   Melisande,"  "  The  Musical  Move- 
ment in  Paris,"  and  an  absorbing  paper  on  the  Concert-Music 
of  Richard  Strauss,  etc. 

"May  surely  be  read  with  profit  by  the  musically  uneducated  and 
educated."— Philip  Hale  in  the  Boston  Herald. 

HANDEL 

Translation  and  Introduction  by  A.  EAGLEFIELD  HULL. 
With  musical  extracts,  four  unusual  illustrations,  and  an 
index.  210  pp.  $1.50  net. 

"...  Written  with  enthusiasim,  but  with  judgment  as  well.  The 
story  of  Handel's  life  is  told  simply,  but  with  feeling  and  alacrity  of 
phrase  .  .  .  will  repay  reading.  .  .  ."—Springfield  Republican. 

BEETHOVEN 

Translated  by  A.  EAGLEFIELD  HULL.     $1.50  net. 

This  is,  perhaps,  the  most  famous  of  the  non-fiction  musical 
books  by  the  author  of  "Jean-Christophe."  The  translator 
has  added  to  Mr.  Holland's  famous  monograph,  in  which  he 
treats  of  Beethoven  both  as  musician  and  hero,  so  much  in- 
teresting additional  material  that  this  volume  almost  doubles 
the  size  of  the  original. 

HENRY     HOLT    AND    COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


' '  One  of  the  most  important  books  on  music  that  has  ever 
been  printed."  (W,  J.  Henderson). 

With  a  chapter  by  HENRY  E.  KREHBIEL,  covering  Richard 
Strauss,  Cornelius,  Goldmark,  Kienzl,  Humperdink,  Smetana, 
Dvorak,  Charpentier,  Sullivan,  Elgar,  etc.,  in  addition  to  his 
earlier  chapter  on  Music  in  America. 

Practically  a  cyclopedia  of  its  subject. 

MUSIC  AND  MUSICIANS 

By  PROF.  ALBERT  LAVIGNAC,  Author  of  "  The  Music  Dramas 
of  Richard  Wagner."  Translated  by  WILLIAM  MAR- 
CHANT.  i2mo.  $2.00  net. 

This  remarkable  book  by  the  doyen  of  the  Paris  Con- 
servatory, has  been  accepted  as  a  standard  work  in  America, 
and  reprinted  in  England.  It  is  difficult  to  briefly  give  an  idea 
of  its  comprehensiveness,  which,  with  its  518  pages,  94  illus- 
trations, 510  examples  in  Musical  Notation,  and  over  1,000 
references  in  the  index,  makes  it,  as  the  Dial  says,  "  in  fact, 
although  not  in  form,  a  veritable  encyclopaedia  of  music." 
"  The  wonder  is,"  says  the  well-known  writer  on  musical 
subjects,  W.  J.  HENDERSON,  "  that  those  parts  of  the  book 
which  ought  to  be  dry  are  so  readable  ...  a  style  which 
can  be  fairly  described  as  fascinating."  The  work  is  divided 
as  follows:  A  Study  of  Musical  Sound  (66  pp.) — Materials 
of  Sound  (122  pp.),  including  the  voice,  orchestral  instru- 
ments, with  pictures  of  each,  many  other  instruments,  and 
an  illuminating  account  of  orchestration — Grammar  of  Music 
(152  pp.),  covering  the  harmonic  system,  counterpoint,  and 
the  fugue — Esthetics  (41  pp.),  including  Composition,  with  a 
discussion  of  the  forms  of  the  sonata,  symphony,  concerto, 
overture,  dance  forms,  national  characteristics,  improvisation, 
criticism  and  the  beautiful  in  music — History  of  the  Art  of 
Music  (106  pp.),  covering  the  ancients,  the  primitives,  and 
the  various  national  schools  with  notes  on  the  individual  com- 
posers and  some  performers,  and  concluding  remarks  on  the 
musical  career.  To  this  is  added  the  Appendix  by  the  well- 
known  American  authority,  H.  E.  KREHBIEL,  covering  MUSH 
in  America  and  The  Present  State  of  the  Art  of  Music. 

HENRY     HOLT     AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW    YORK 


BY   CLAYTON   HAMILTON 

Each  book  fully  indexed.     12mo.    $1.75  net. 

PROBLEMS  OF  THE  PLAYWRIGHT 

Building  a  Play  Backward;  Surprise  in  the  Drama;  The 
Troublesome  Last  Act;  High  Comedy  in  America;  The  George 
M.  Cohan  School  of  Playrights;  Middle  Class  Opinion;  Criti- 
cism and  Creation  in  the  Drama;  Dramatic  Talent  and  Theat- 
rical Talent  •,  The  Plays  of  Lord  Dunsany;  Romance  and 
Realism  in  the  Drama;  Scenic  Settings  in  America;  The  New 
Stagecraft;  The  Non-Commercial  Drama;  A  Democratic  Insur- 
rection in  the  Theatre;  A  Scheme  for  a  Stock  Company;  What's 
Wrong  with  the  American  Drama,  etc.,  etc. 

Prof.  Brander  Matthews,  in  the  Bookman:  .  .  .Mr.  Hamilton  and 
Mr.  Archer — like  Lessing  and  like  Sarcey — have  a  broad  background  of 
culture.  .  .  .  They  never  stray  into  the  dusty  paths  of  pedantry.  .  .  . 
Consistently  interesting  because  it  has  the  support  of  knowledge  and 
the  savour  of  individuality." 

STUDIES  IN  STAGECRAFT 

The  New  Art  of  Making  Plays,  The  Pictorial  Stage,  The 
Modern  Art  of  Stage  Direction,  A  Plea  for  a  New  Type  of 
Play,  The  Undramatic  Drama,  The  Supernatural  Drama,  The 
Irish  National  Theatre,  Where  to  Begin  a  Play,  A  New  Defense 
of  Melodrama,  The  Art  of  the  Moving-Picture  Play,  The  One- 
Act  Play  in  America,  Organizing  an  Audience,  etc.,  etc. 

Nation:  "Information,  alertness,  coolness,  sanity  and  the  command 
of  a  forceful  and  pointed  English.  ...  A  good  book,  in  spite  of 
all  deductions." 

Prof.  Archibald  Henderson,  in  The  Drama:  "University  excellent  in 
quality.  .  .  .  Continually  interesting  in  presentation  .  .  .  uniform  for 
high  excellence  and  elevated  standards.  ..." 

THE  THEORY  OF  THE  THEATRE 

What  is  a  Play? — The  Psychology  of  Theatre  Audiences. — 
The  Actor  and  the  Dramatist. — Stage  Conventions  in  Modern 
Times. — The  Four  Leading  Types  of  Drama. — The  Modern 
Social  Drama,  and  Other  Principles  of  Dramatic  Criticism. — 
The  Public  and  the  Dramatist. — Dramatic  Art  and  the  Theatre 
Business. — Dramatic  Literature  and  Theatric  Journalism. — 
Pleasant  and  Unpleasant  Plays. — Themes  in  the  Theatre. — The 
Function  of  Imagination,  etc.,  etc. 

Bookman :  "Presents  coherently  a  more  substantial  body  of  idea  on 
the  subject  than  perhaps  elsewhere  accessible. 

Boston  Transcript:  "At  every  moment  of  his  discussion  he  has  a 
firm  grasp  upon  every  phase  of  the  subject." 

HENRY    HOLT    AND    COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  NEW  YORK 


University  of  California  Library 
Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


SEP  2  2 


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